It’s Teacher Appreciation Week!

Whether you’re a current, former, or future student (or all three!), this is the week to #thankateacher.

In honor of national Teacher Appreciation Week, we’ve gathered some teacher-related career stats from the U.S. Department of Labor.

By the numbers

Ever wonder just how many teachers there are across the United States?  The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides these numbers (from 2016, the latest year available):

• Kindergarten and elementary school teachers: 1,565,300
• Middle school teaches: 630, 300
• High school teachers: 1,018,700

Top skills

O*NET describes teachers’ top workplace skills:

• Instructing — Teaching others how to do something.
• Speaking — Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Learning Strategies — Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
• Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Active Learning — Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

Top abilities

O*NET also identifies teachers’ top workplace skills:

• Oral Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension — The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Speech Clarity — The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Speech Recognition — The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Problem Sensitivity — The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.