51+ Teacher Burnout Statistics 2026

Teaching is one of the most important jobs in the world — and apparently one of the most exhausting.

K-12 teachers are the #1 most burnt-out profession in the US.

That is not a close race.

53% of teachers report feeling burned out, and they work an average of 53 hours per week — 9 more hours than comparable workers in other fields.

70% say their school is understaffed, which means the teachers who stay keep absorbing the work of the ones who leave.

The pipeline is also shrinking. Enrollment in teacher-training programs dropped 33% between 2011 and 2021.

Report Highlights

In the US, K-12 teachers are the #1 most burnt-out profession.
44% of teachers say burnout is a constant part of their job.
23% of teachers reported they were likely to leave their job in 2024.
40,000 teachers quit their jobs in 2023, creating a huge shortage of teachers in the classroom.
55% more teachers are retiring early or switching careers.
Up to 30% of new teachers are quitting their job within 5 years of teaching.
13% of teachers reported quitting their job due to not getting paid as much as they should have been paid.

Teachers Are Quitting Due to Burnout

Many reports have shown the dramatic numbers of teachers who are quitting due to burnout.

This number only seems to be growing each year as teachers are overworked and often underpaid.

40,000 teachers quit teaching in 2016, reaching an all-time high for a loss of teachers in education.
Teachers who quit their profession made up 9% of the total workforce.
About 20% of teaching positions are now left unfilled due to the large number of teachers quitting.
From 2015 to 2016, around 12,000 male teachers quit teaching secondary school classes.
From 2015 to 2016, almost 8,000 female teachers also quit their secondary teaching jobs.
Teachers are often forced to work 60 hours a week during term time, creating too much more to handle.
86% of teachers reported seeing far more teachers quit and retire since 2020 than they had ever seen before.

80% of teachers in a report said that they didn’t know how they could manage their small salary within two years.
A 2020 survey showed that 28% of teachers were planning on returning early in their careers.
The amount of teachers quitting or retiring has risen by 55% in the last 30 years.
New teachers are leaving their jobs within 5 years of teaching in percentages as high as 30%.
8% of US teachers are quitting their careers, while only 3% to 4% of teachers in other countries are quitting.
A report showed that 29% of teachers quit their job due to personal and lifestyle reasons.
In 2018, 84% of teachers left their jobs voluntarily due to a collection of reasons and complaints.
36% of teachers were less likely to quit due to burnout if they took teaching methods courses to help them with their job efficiency.
65% of teachers were less likely to quit from burnout if they had prepared for teaching by observing other teachers.
62% and 59% of black and Hispanic teachers were reported to be quitting at higher numbers than other teachers.
In 2016, around 12,000 male teachers left secondary teaching due to burnout and general unhappiness with their work.
In 2016, almost 8,000 female teachers quit secondary teaching work due to burnout.
Enrollment in teacher-training programs dropped 33% between 2011 and 2021, meaning fewer new teachers are entering the pipeline to replace those leaving.
In 2025, 16% of teachers intended to leave their jobs, down from 22% in 2024 — a sign of slight improvement, but still a major concern for schools.

K-12 Teachers Are the Most Burnt Out

Out of all of the kinds of teachers, K-12 teachers have been shown to struggle with the most burnout.

Too much is expected of these teachers and they are often left on their own with very little support or guidance.

K-12 teachers are almost twice as likely to struggle teaching after covid, resulting in around 43%.
K-12 teachers reported feeling burnt out, the numbers coming to 52% of teachers who were feeling this way.
Around 34% of teachers reported feeling some feelings of anxiety around their work and managing students.
Surveys show that 30% of K-12 teachers are choosing to retire earlier than they normally would.
Some states show that over 40% of their teachers are choosing to retire earlier than expected.

Some teachers reported having as much as 27 hours of additional work added to their workload without an increase in pay.
78% of public school teachers were women who also reported feeling stressed by their jobs.
Reports show that almost 2 in 5 public school teachers plan to quit in the next two years.
Around 2.6 million K-12 teachers resigned in the last few years, leaving behind thousands of job openings.
The first 4 months of 2022 showed that teachers quitting their K-12 teaching jobs are only getting worse.
In 2020, state and local education teachers were quitting by 1.5%, which is the highest percentage in over 20 years.
Female teachers (61%) are burning out at higher rates than male teachers (48%), according to Gallup 2025 data — a gender gap that has grown wider in recent years.
US teachers work an average of 53 hours per week, which is 9 hours more than comparable workers in other fields with similar education levels.
70% of K-12 teachers say their school is understaffed, according to a 2024 Pew Research survey — meaning the teachers who stay are constantly taking on more than their job requires.

You can see more about how this ties into pay in our teacher salary by state guide.

Teachers Aren’t Getting Paid Enough for Their Work

Aside from generally feeling burnt out from teaching, teachers aren’t getting reimbursed enough either.

They are expected to work harder without having a salary that reflects this level of commitment and effort.

A 2018 report showed that 13% of teachers left their jobs due to not getting paid enough.
While the same report showed that 60% of teachers quit to seek out better career opportunities in teaching.
44% of public schools reported excessive teaching vacancies in recent years.
Many teachers say that they are doing the job of 5 or more people without getting additional pay.
Teaching salaries between 2021 and 2022 have decreased by 4% for teachers across the board.
Some schools are increasing their days by 30 to 55 minutes a day without additional pay for the teachers.
Most teachers only make $20 to $50 an hour, no matter how much additional work they are given each day.
3 out of 10 teachers who quit their teaching jobs for other jobs found the options to be very limited in benefits.
Some schools reported offering teachers a 5% pay increase in order to try to keep them working at the school.

The Demand for Teachers Has Increased

With so many teachers suffering from burnout, the demand for teachers has never been greater.

Job openings for teachers are plentiful and are only predicted to become more and more available as teachers leave the profession.

Job openings for teachers are expected to grow more than ever between 2016 and 2026.
Teaching jobs for elementary school and kindergarten are expected to rise by 7% as more job positions are left unfilled.
Job openings for high school grade teaching jobs are expected to rise by 8% as so many teachers are quitting.
By 2020, it is reported that 600,000 teachers have quit or retired, leaving huge vacancies for teachers in schools.
At the start of the 2021 and 2022 school year, there was an all-time low of hires at 0.59.
80% say that the unfilled job openings for teachers have put a greater workload on existing teachers.
Schools reported that 44% of their job vacancies were in special education areas of the school.
57% of schools admitted to having to give teachers more work due to the fact that so many positions go unfilled.
66% of existing teachers have vocalized their concerns about the lack of substitute teachers in schools.
The demand for more teachers has only risen in 2022, while the hiring rate has only decreased creating an imbalance.
It is reported that around 360,000 teacher positions are left unfilled due to people quitting or retiring early.
43% of schools also said that they were struggling to hire more tutors to help out the students.
Schools in the West have an average of 2.7 vacancies when it comes to hiring on new teachers.
82% of public schools needed to fill two or more teaching vacancies before the start of the 2024-2025 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Only 29% of teachers felt their school provided adequate support for managing stress and burnout in 2024.

Read more about how these shortages affect kids in our high school statistics report.

Teachers Are Suffering From Mental Health Complaints

Aside from generally feeling unsatisfied with their work, many teachers have also complained of mental health issues.

This strenuous job has taken a toll on many and has led to some serious mental health concerns.

90% of teachers reported that their feelings of burnout were a serious problem for them and their job.
91% of educators said that pandemic-related stress at their job was something that was a problem for them.
A survey showed that 51% of teachers fear for their mental and physical health when teaching.
84% of teachers reported increased anxiety due to work-related stress in the past year, and 10% reported relationship breakdowns caused by job pressure.
AI tools used regularly can save teachers up to 6 hours per week — the equivalent of six extra weeks per school year — by automating lesson planning and grading tasks. Many schools are now piloting these tools as a way to fight burnout directly.

See how much teachers are paid across different states in our teacher salary by state breakdown.

References:

Teachers Are Quitting Due to Burnout

K-12 Teachers Are the Most Burnt Out

Teachers Aren't Getting Paid Enough for Their Work

The Demand for Teachers Has Increased

Teachers Are Suffering From Mental Health Complaints