The latest workforce data from the Department for Education (DfE, 2025) shows that 37,413 teachers walked away in 2023/24.
This is a marginal improvement on the previous two years when 38,788 (in 2022/23) and 38,568 (in 2021/22) quit respectively. This is in addition to the more than 11,500 teachers who retired over the same three-year period.
Furthermore, retention rates among early career teachers (ECT) continue to cause concern with 1 in 10 quitting after a year (10.3%), 1 in 5 quitting after two years (19.5%), 1 in 4 quitting after three years (26.8%), and a third quitting after five years (32.4%). However, it should be noted that the one and two-year retention rates are marginally improved year-on-year.
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