What the data shows
DfE counts full-time-equivalent advertised teacher vacancies in state-funded schools each November. The series has moved sharply: roughly 1,100 in November 2020, a peak of about 2,800 in November 2023, then a fall to 1,615 in November 2025.
That is a substantial easing – the count has fallen by well over a third from the peak. It has not, however, returned to where it started. On the latest figure, vacancies represent 0.35% of teaching posts.
Regionally the rate ranges from 0.24% to 0.45%, against an England figure of 0.35%.
What a vacancy count does and does not capture
A vacancy is a post being advertised on the census date. That definition is narrower than most readers assume, and it creates three blind spots.
First, a post already covered by a non-specialist does not appear. If a school hands physics lessons to a willing biologist, the timetable is filled and the vacancy disappears from the count – while the underlying supply problem does not.
Second, a post filled temporarily does not appear in the advertised-vacancy count either – DfE publishes temporarily-filled posts as a separate measure. This shows up clearly in the geography: London has among the lowest advertised vacancy rates in England alongside the highest temporary-filling rates. Read on its own, the vacancy figure would suggest London has the least difficulty recruiting.
Third, a subject dropped from the curriculum generates no vacancy at all.
Why this matters
The fall is genuine and worth stating plainly: on this measure, immediate recruitment pressure has eased considerably since 2023.
But vacancy counts, recruitment against target, specialist teaching and teacher supply are complementary indicators, not interchangeable ones. A single measure cannot establish whether there is a shortage, and treating a falling vacancy count as proof that supply problems have been solved would over-read the evidence.
For school leaders and trainees deciding where the real pressure sits, the more useful reading is all four together – which is what the Explorer is built to let you do.