Only a third of teachers say they’re extremely or very satisfied with their job overall. About half (48%) say they’re somewhat satisfied, while 18% say they are not too or not at all satisfied with their job.

Compared with all U.S. workers (across different industries and occupations), teachers express much lower job satisfaction. In a Center survey conducted in early 2023, 51% of all employed adults said they were extremely or very satisfied with their job overall.

Teachers’ job satisfaction is fairly consistent across grade levels, though elementary school teachers are somewhat less likely than high school teachers to say they’re extremely or very satisfied (30% vs. 36%). The share among middle school teachers is not significantly different from that of elementary or high school teachers.

Satisfaction with specific aspects of the job

When we asked teachers how satisfied they are with various aspects of their job, we found that teachers get the most satisfaction from their relationship with fellow teachers and the least satisfaction from how much they’re paid.

About seven-in-ten teachers (71%) are extremely or very satisfied with their relationship with other teachers at their school.

Between 45% and 52% are extremely or very satisfied with each of the following:

• Their relationship with administrators at their school (52%)
• How much freedom they have in implementing the curriculum (46%)
• Their relationship with their students’ parents (45%)

Fewer than four-in-ten are extremely or very satisfied with these aspects of their job:

• Access to the resources they need to do their job (36%)
• Opportunities for training or ways to develop new skills (36%)
• Benefits their employer provides (35%)

Only 15% are extremely or very satisfied with how much they are paid. And by far the highest level of dissatisfaction is over salary – 51% of teachers say they are not too or not at all satisfied with how much they are paid.

While views are largely consistent across groups of teachers and types of schools, there are some notable differences.

Differences by school level

Elementary school teachers stand out as being less satisfied than middle and high school teachers with how much freedom they have in implementing curriculum.

About four-in-ten elementary school teachers (39%) say they are extremely or very satisfied with this aspect of their job, compared with 50% of middle school teachers and 53% of high school teachers.

Elementary school teachers are more satisfied than middle and high school teachers when it comes to their relationships with their students’ parents: 55% are highly satisfied, compared with 38% of middle school teachers and 35% of high school teachers.

Differences by poverty level

Teachers in low-poverty schools are more satisfied than those in medium- and high-poverty schools when it comes to their relationship with their students’ parents: 51% are highly satisfied, compared with 39% and 40%, respectively.

And teachers in high-poverty schools are more likely than those in medium- and low-poverty schools to say they are not satisfied with how much freedom they have in implementing curriculum (30% vs. 22% and 17%, respectively, say they are not too or not at all satisfied).

Poverty levels are based on the percentage of students in the school who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch.

Do teachers feel trusted to do their job well?

Teachers are skeptical overall that the public trusts teachers to do a good job. Only 18% think most Americans trust public K-12 teachers a great deal or a fair amount to do their job well.

We also asked teachers how much trust they think their peers, administrators, students and students’ parents have in them. Majorities think each group trusts them a great deal or a fair amount to do their job well. But they feel the least strongly about this when it comes to their students’ parents.

About six-in-ten teachers (58%) say they think other teachers at their school trust them a great deal to do their job well. Some 53% say the same about their school administrators, and a similar share (52%) say this about their students.

The share saying their students’ parents trust them a great deal to do their job well is significantly lower (30%).

Differences by school level

Elementary school teachers are more likely than middle and high school teachers to say their students and their students’ parents trust them a great deal.

For example, 62% of elementary school teachers say they think their students trust them a great deal to do their job well, compared with 45% of middle school teachers and 41% of high school teachers.

Likelihood that teachers will change jobs

We asked teachers to think about the future and assess how likely it is that they will look for a new job this school year. About three-in-ten teachers (29%) say it’s at least somewhat likely they’ll look for a new job, with 11% saying it is extremely or very likely they’ll do this.

About seven-in-ten teachers (71%) say it’s not too or not at all likely they’ll look for a new job this year. (The 2% who say they’re likely to retire or stop working in the next year are not included.)

Among teachers who say they may look for a new job, 40% say they’re most likely to seek a job outside education. Roughly three-in-ten (29%) say they’ll look for a non-teaching job in education, 18% say they’ll look for a teaching job at another public K-12 school, and 2% say they’ll look for a teaching job in a private school.

An additional 10% say it’s most likely they will take some other path.

Would teachers recommend teaching as a profession?

Teachers are about evenly split over whether they would advise a young person starting out today to become a teacher – 48% say they would, and 52% say they would not.

High school teachers are more likely than middle or elementary school teachers to say they’d advise a young person to become a teacher (56% vs. 46% and 43%, respectively).

Teachers who are newer to the job have a different view on this than those who’ve been teaching for over a decade.

Among those who’ve been teaching for less than six years, 57% say they’d recommend teaching as a career. The share is significantly lower among those who’ve been teaching 11 years or more (45%).

For teachers who’ve been in the profession six to 10 years, the share (48%) is not significantly different from that of newer or more experienced teachers.