With reports of a staffing crisis facing schools in the UK and over 1,000 unfilled vacancies at the start of August, hiring demands are likely to spill over into the start of the new academic term, according to research by CV Library.

CV-Library data shows demand is concentrated among educational support staff, rather than teachers, reflecting the trend for qualified teachers leaving the profession.

It comes as CV-Library analysed over one million jobs advertised on its platform over the last twelve months, showing that education jobs are receiving the most applications as well as the areas hiring the most.

Over the last year, the jobs seeing most applications were teaching assistant (249,300), SEN (special educational needs) teaching assistant (49,231), learning support assistant (37,369) and cover supervisor (29,968).  

Maths teacher (18,393), the teacher role attracting most applications, was only eighth on the list, reflecting a huge drop off in interest for full-time teaching positions when compared with entry-level education roles or support roles. 

Meanwhile, STEM teacher openings are proving more popular among jobseekers, with maths teacher, science teacher and science technician all attracting more applications than arts & humanities subjects. 

By location, the counties with most education vacancies on CV-Library over the last year were London (84,292 jobs); Greater Manchester (17,683), West Midlands (16,540), West Yorkshire (10,812) and Kent (8,913), reflecting a particular shortage of teachers in inner city schools. 

Lee Biggins, Founder and CEO of CV-Library, said in a press release, “UK schools are facing the headache of finding enough qualified educators to meet demand, as teachers leave the profession due to stress and workload. Even as schools return after the summer break, there may be some holes still left to plug, with anecdotes about the staffing crisis piling up.”

Biggins said, “Our data backs this up, while there is plenty of demand for entry-level, teaching assistant and support roles within schools, that demand drops off a cliff for teacher roles. Inner city schools seem to be hardest hit, with most openings in London, Manchester and other major urban areas, while rural locations like Devon also feature.”