Elementary school and kindergarten teachers in Bas-Saint-Laurent

The employment outlook will be Moderate for elementary school and kindergarten teachers (NOC 41221) in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region for the 2025-2027 period.

The following factors contributed to this outlook:

• Employment growth will lead to a few new positions.
• Not many positions will become available due to retirements.
• There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

Employment in this occupation varies according to government funding and changes in the number of students who are attending preschool and elementary school.

The ministère de l’Éducation anticipated that school enrolment would drop in the medium term. However, new kindergarten classes for four-year-olds, which were not included in the projections, could mitigate the decrease at the preschool level, despite a significantly slower roll out. In addition, the impact of recent migration flows, which were also missing from the projections, could curb the decline or even reverse the trend, especially at the elementary level and even more so in major urban centres.

Despite targeted reinvestments and the removal of hiring caps, school service centres must deal with significant funding reductions, which results in various cuts depending on the region, while there are still high needs.

In addition, the teacher shortage remains a major concern in the school network. Despite salary adjustments and announced measures to recognize prior learning, support recruitment, retention and the return of retirees, these efforts are still insufficient to meet all needs.

Here are some key facts about elementary school and kindergarten teachers in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region:

• Approximately 1,480 people worked in this occupation in May 2021.
• Elementary school and kindergarten teachers mainly work in the following sectors:
  • Educational services (NAICS 61): more than 95%