Teachers who last worked in upper-secondary school are more positive about returning. There are factors that affect the willingness to work as a teacher again, but overall, there are small differences between school types. A higher proportion of men than women would consider returning to the profession.

"More time to prepare, carry out, and follow up teaching, a more reasonable workload and better possibilities to control the work situation are factors mentioned as important for returning to the teaching profession," says Jessica Baldgrim, analyst at Statistics Sweden.

Work environment still a reason to leave the profession

The most common reason for teachers leaving school is the work environment. This applies to primary, secondary, and adult secondary education teachers. There is a higher proportion today than in 2016 who state that workload, stress and expectations from guardian, many administrative tasks, small possibilities to control the work situation and too large pupil groups have contributed entirely or largely to leaving the profession.

"A good working environment can contribute to teachers returning to the profession, but it can probably also contribute to them never leaving in the first place." explains Jessica Baldgrim

More than half of the teachers who left the profession indicated that overtime is more the rule than the exception. Six out of ten teachers stated that they worked overtime on at least one occasion each week when they last worked as a teacher. Women were more likely than men to say that they worked overtime, and this was particularly common among female primary school teachers.

Teachers outside the profession (pdf)