Are There Any Teaching Jobs Left?

I know plenty of people who have received or are in the process of obtaining teaching certificates, and while I have been told for forever that teachers are virtually guaranteed a job, it seems that is not the case now:

Since last fall, school systems, state education agencies, technical schools and colleges have shed about 125,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At the same time, many teachers who had planned to retire or switch jobs are staying on because of the recession, and many people who have been laid off in other fields are trying to carve out second careers as teachers or applying to work as substitutes to make ends meet.

[...]

Just a few years ago, before the recession hit, several reports had projected a big shortage of teachers across a wide range of subjects over the next several years as baby boomers retired from the classroom and the strong economy lured college graduates into fields other than education.

But the nationwide demand for teachers in 60 out of 61 subjects has declined from a year earlier, according to an annual report issued this week by the American Association for Employment in Education. Only one subject — math — was listed as having an extreme shortage of teachers. In recent years, more than a dozen subjects had extreme shortages.

Plenty of these wannabe teachers cannot find jobs, and I really wonder how easy it is to find positions, no matter if you do alternative route or get a master's degree, or one of the many other ways to enter the field. Special education is practically the only way left, as University of Kansas Dean of Education Rick Ginsberg explains in the article (disclosure: he's my father's friend), but not every teacher is made to work with special education students.

Will this reverse in a few years, if the recession dies down and people retire? Is it only true in some areas? Rural North Dakota, for all I know, still needs teachers. But that doesn't do much good if you live on the East Coast...state requirements vary tremendously.

I suspect that there are job opportunities for those with teaching degrees, even advanced ones, at educational institutions or tutoring centers. Directors, instructors, etc...they may not be straight teaching jobs, but they are in the educational field.