Looking Back and Moving Forward: COVID-19’s Impact on the Teacher Labor Market and Implications for the Future
Andrew M. Camp 
What We Studied and Why It Matters
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers reported high levels of stress and burnout — raising fears of a mass exodus from the profession. We used Arkansas administrative data spanning the 2018–2019 through 2022–2023 school years to find out what actually happened. Teacher turnover stayed relatively stable in the first two pandemic-era years, but then jumped 5 percentage points (a 20% increase) entering the 2022–2023 school year. This spike reflected both more teachers leaving the education sector entirely and more moving to non-teaching roles within it. Critically, the turnover wasn’t evenly distributed: we found significant differences by teacher and school characteristics, suggesting a decline in aggregate teacher quality, diversity, and experience. These findings point to lasting effects on the composition of the teacher workforce that extend well beyond the pandemic itself.
Links
Citation
@article{camp2024,
author = {Camp, Andrew M. and Zamarro, Gema and McGee, Josh B.},
title = {Looking {Back} and {Moving} {Forward:} {COVID-19’s} {Impact}
on the {Teacher} {Labor} {Market} and {Implications} for the
{Future}},
journal = {Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis},
date = {2024-06-19},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737241258184},
doi = {10.3102/01623737241258184},
langid = {en}
}