The changing teacher labor market in Canada: Patterns and conditions

Access to current and reliable teacher labor market information can benefit many groups: governments involved in developing and implementing policies related to resource allocation and manpower planning; university education faculties involved in preservice certification programs for teachers; teach er federations involved in the professional development of teachers; school districts involved in resource deployment; schools involved in the plannin g and delivery of quality programs and services to students; and students c oncerned about the quality and breadth of programs. Finally, the uncertaint y of the labor market and the need for career planning information are issu es critical to teacher education students. This study examines the nature a nd scope of the changing teacher labor market in Canada and assesses the qu ality and value of teacher labor market information to information users. T he study found that, with few exceptions, school districts in Canada were e xperiencing a general surplus of teachers. It was also discovered that teac her labor market information was useful to different groups for different r easons. Students were more likely to use the information than executives, a nd students were more inclined than executives to support a policy that rel ates the selection of students to teacher demand conditions.