HR in education connects hiring pressures to day-to-day learning support. With 3.7 million K-12 public school teachers and 2.9 million students in public elementary and secondary schools, staffing decisions directly affect stability. This page also looks at per-pupil spending, burnout and retention signals, and how HR tools—from performance management to e-learning and engagement surveys—are used to develop and support educators.
Key Takeaways
- 4.2% of all jobs in the United States are in the Education, Training, and Library occupations (NAICS basis, BLS Occupation groups)
- About 3.7 million K-12 public school teachers worked in the United States (fall employment count, excluding private)
- 2.9 million students attended public elementary and secondary schools in the United States (enrollment figure, public only, year-based digest table)
- In 2021, public schools spent $14,458 per pupil (current expenditures per student)
- In 2021, public school expenditures for instruction averaged $7,473 per student (instructional expenditures per pupil)
- In 2021, average public school spending per student increased by about 7% from 2020 (real changes reported in NCES digest trend context)
- Average HR technology market growth is estimated at about 15% CAGR over a recent period (market growth estimate)
- Human Capital Management (HCM) software market size was about $37.0 billion globally in 2022 (HCM/Human Capital Management market size estimate)
- The global HR software market size was about $49.0 billion in 2023 (HR software market size estimate)
- 28% of educators reported being burned out “often” or “very often” (survey-based burnout percentage, education workforce wellbeing study)
- Employee turnover averaged 15% in the US (benchmark average annual turnover across industries)
- The US job openings rate averaged 5.0% in 2023 (JOLTS metric)
- 61% of organizations used performance management systems in 2021 (performance management software usage share)
- 78% of organizations used e-learning for employee training in 2020 (LMS/e-learning usage share)
- 69% of organizations use employee surveys for engagement measurement (engagement survey usage share)
Teacher shortages and high burnout are rising, making HR technology essential for recruitment, retention, and support.
Related reading
01 · Category
Industry Trends29 stats
01
4.2% of all jobs in the United States are in the Education, Training, and Library occupations (NAICS basis, BLS Occupation groups)
02
About 3.7 million K-12 public school teachers worked in the United States (fall employment count, excluding private)
03
2.9 million students attended public elementary and secondary schools in the United States (enrollment figure, public only, year-based digest table)
04
12.6% of public school districts reported teacher shortages in 2022 (share reporting shortages in the RAND survey)
05
1 in 5 principals reported feeling unprepared for hiring decisions during the 2021–2022 school year (survey share)
06
7.3% of teachers said they were likely to leave the profession within 2 years (survey-based intent-to-leave measure)
07
57% of school districts reported using some form of emergency hiring (HR staffing approach reported in district survey)
08
6.4% of teacher vacancies were reported as hard-to-fill in 2022 (shortage/hard-to-fill indicator from district-level reporting)
09
About 88% of US public school teachers have full-time roles (percentage derived from NCES employment distribution table)
10
14% of teachers worked in schools with high concentrations of students living in poverty (percentage from NCES School and Staffing Survey-based tabulations)
11
29% of teachers reported inadequate access to instructional materials (teacher survey-based measure, NCES SASS-based reporting)
12
Approximately 3.8 million people were employed in the “Education and Training” occupational category in the US (BLS Employment, annual average)
13
UK government data shows there are 416,000 teachers in England (teacher workforce count)
14
UK (England) has 17,600 schools (provider count, School workforce statistics context)
15
In the US, public school teachers totaled about 3.7 million (NCES Digest table total teachers)
16
51% of districts reported using substitutes and paraprofessionals to cover vacancies (HR staffing strategy share)
17
25% of districts reported raising pay for substitute teachers during shortages (pay increase share)
18
16% of districts reported offering signing bonuses (recruitment incentive adoption share)
19
14% of districts reported offering retention bonuses (retention incentive share)
20
9% of districts reported waiving certification requirements for certain roles during shortages (policy relaxation share)
21
In the US, 72% of school districts reported that teacher pay was not competitive enough to attract candidates (district sentiment measure)
22
13% of districts used “grow-your-own” teacher pipelines (pipeline program share)
23
10% of districts partnered with higher education institutions to accelerate teacher credentialing (partnership share)
24
10% of districts used “grow-your-own” teacher pipelines in 2022
25
57% of districts reported using some form of emergency hiring in 2022
26
51% of districts reported using substitutes and paraprofessionals to cover vacancies in 2022
27
25% of districts reported raising pay for substitute teachers during shortages in 2022
28
16% of districts reported offering signing bonuses in 2022
29
14% of districts reported waiving certification requirements for certain roles during shortages in 2022
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
Across the education industry, teacher hiring strain is emerging as a clear trend, with 12.6% of public school districts reporting teacher shortages in 2022 and 7.3% of teachers saying they were likely to leave within two years.
report visual · Comparison
District HR tactics for teacher shortages (2022)
Emergency hiring was the dominant HR approach, used by 57% of U.S. public school districts—well ahead of the next most common tactic (substitutes and paraprofessionals coverage at
57% of districts reported using some form of emergency hiring in 202257%
51% of districts reported using substitutes and paraprofessionals to cover vacancies in 2022
51%
10% of districts used “grow-your-own” teacher pipelines in 2022
10%
source-verifiedrand.org2022
02 · Category
Cost Analysis8 stats
01
In 2021, public schools spent $14,458per pupil (current expenditures per student)
02
In 2021, public school expenditures for instruction averaged $7,473per student (instructional expenditures per pupil)
03
In 2021, average public school spending per student increased by about 7% from 2020 (real changes reported in NCES digest trend context)
04
The average annual salary for postsecondary teachers in the US was $85,000in 2023 (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
05
The median pay for preschool teachers in the US was $36,000per year (BLS OES wage statistic, 2023/2022 timeframe)
06
The median pay for elementary school teachers in the US was $61,000per year (BLS OES)
07
The median pay for secondary school teachers in the US was $62,000per year (BLS OES)
08
The median pay for education and training administrators was $104,000per year (BLS OES)
Interpretation
Cost Analysis Interpretation
Cost pressure is evident in public education as 2021 spending reached $14,458 per pupil with instruction alone at $7,473 per student, rising about 7% from 2020, while teacher wage baselines also vary widely from $36,000 for preschool to $61,000 for elementary and $85,000 for postsecondary, making labor costs a key driver of overall HR budgeting decisions in the education industry.
03 · Category
Market Size10 stats
01
Average HR technology market growth is estimated at about 15% CAGR over a recent period (market growth estimate)
02
Human Capital Management (HCM) software market size was about $37.0 billion globally in 2022 (HCM/Human Capital Management market size estimate)
03
The global HR software market size was about $49.0 billion in 2023 (HR software market size estimate)
04
The global HR software market is forecast to reach $86.2 billion by 2032 (forecast market size)
05
The global talent management software market size was about $7.4 billion in 2023 (market size estimate)
06
The talent management software market is forecast to reach $14.2 billion by 2033 (forecast market size)
07
The global learning management system (LMS) market size was about $29.0 billion in 2022 (LMS market size estimate)
08
The LMS market is forecast to exceed $50.0 billion by 2029 (LMS forecast)
09
The global HR analytics market size was about $3.1 billion in 2022 (people analytics market estimate)
10
The HR analytics market is forecast to reach $10.0 billion by 2032 (people analytics forecast)
Interpretation
Market Size Interpretation
For the market size view of HR in education, HR and talent management software is expanding fast, with HR software growing from about $49.0 billion in 2023 to a projected $86.2 billion by 2032 and talent management software rising from about $7.4 billion in 2023 to about $14.2 billion by 2033.
More related reading
04 · Category
Performance Metrics14 stats
01
28% of educators reported being burned out “often” or “very often” (survey-based burnout percentage, education workforce wellbeing study)
02
Employee turnover averaged 15% in the US (benchmark average annual turnover across industries)
03
The US job openings rate averaged 5.0% in 2023 (JOLTS metric)
04
The quit rate averaged 2.5% of total employment in 2023 (JOLTS quit rate metric)
05
3.0% of total employment was hired each month on average in 2023 (JOLTS hires rate metric)
06
In 2023, there were 117,000 job openings for elementary and middle school teachers in the US (BLS job openings, year-specific)
07
In 2023, there were 62,000 job openings for secondary school teachers in the US (BLS job openings, year-specific)
08
In 2023, there were 42,000 job openings for postsecondary teachers in the US (BLS job openings, year-specific)
09
In 2021, teacher absenteeism averaged 4.6 days per teacher (US national average estimate, study-based)
10
In 2020–21, teacher absenteeism was 1.4x higher than pre-pandemic averages (relative absenteeism measure)
11
Structured interviews improved candidate quality scores by about 10–15% in meta-analyses of hiring (selection performance metric)
12
Using structured selection increased predictive validity by 18% relative to unstructured methods in meta-analysis (validity metric)
13
Bias in unstructured interviews can be reduced by up to 30% when using structured rubrics (bias-reduction effect estimate from research)
14
Standardized training reduces hiring errors by 20% in operational studies (error reduction metric)
Interpretation
Performance Metrics Interpretation
Performance metrics show that educator burnout is notably high with 28% reporting they are burned out often or very often, while turnover remains a persistent challenge as employee turnover averages 15% and teacher job openings reach 117,000 for elementary and middle school roles in 2023.
05 · Category
User Adoption8 stats
01
61% of organizations used performance management systems in 2021 (performance management software usage share)
02
78% of organizations used e-learning for employee training in 2020 (LMS/e-learning usage share)
03
69% of organizations use employee surveys for engagement measurement (engagement survey usage share)
04
35% of organizations reported using chatbots for HR employee support (HR chatbot adoption share)
05
In a 2022 survey, 48% of HR leaders in education said recruiting automation was a priority (priority share)
06
70% of organizations report using a centralized HR platform (HR suite centralization adoption share)
07
20% of districts reported using virtual interviews during hiring in 2021 (virtual interview adoption share)
08
24% of districts reported using asynchronous video interviews in 2021 (video interview adoption share)
Interpretation
User Adoption Interpretation
For user adoption in education HR, the picture is clear: most organizations are already leaning into core digital tools, with 70% using centralized HR platforms and 61% adopting performance management systems, while newer adoption like HR chatbots still lags at 35%.
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Lars Eriksen. (2026, February 13). HR In The Education Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/hr-in-the-education-industry-statistics
MLA
Lars Eriksen. "HR In The Education Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/hr-in-the-education-industry-statistics.
Chicago
Lars Eriksen. 2026. "HR In The Education Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/hr-in-the-education-industry-statistics.
Sources & references
33 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
+16 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)