There is no doubt the global financial crises of the past year has affected the global ESL industry. Many of us have read the forums with posts like:

Are Salaries Getting Worse?

and comments like:

I'm finding more and more postings for jobs offering 2.0 million won a month.
Wasn't that the average starting salary 5 years ago?!!!

Or

Flooded market

with comments like:

Teachers are flooding the market because the American and British economies imploded. Soon it will be tough to get a job in Korea. Never thought I'd see that day. Just glad I have an f-visa.

Even recruiters denying job applications with excuses such as, “I regret to inform you that we’ve already filled all of our available positions this year,” are becoming commonplace.

We have all discussed it, witnessed it and even encountered it; in the following articles ESL Daily will be analyzing the results taken from several studies conducted by it’s staff in the past few weeks in an attempt to help illustrate how the EFL/ESL market has been affected in the past year and to finally put up some numbers to illuminate the reality of today’s ESL industry.

Study One: Teachers are on the Rise

By comparing the number of teacher job applications on several of the major websites, we have composed the following study:
By analyzing the above data, we can see that there was a huge jump in applications since January of this year.  Between August 2008 (the month with the most applications) and August of 2009, there has been a growth of over 30% percent.

What does this really mean for the average teacher?  Simply increased job competition.  Whether or not there are actually less jobs in the marketplace will be discussed in a following article. However, we can see that there will be 30% more teachers applying for the same jobs that you or I might be trying to obtain.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to determine exactly why the number of applications has surged in the past 12 months, but one can speculate that the poor world economy and resulting rise in unemployment has played a significant role in the spike in applications. (e.g. The U.S now has a nearly 10% unemployment rate that was about 5% at the beginning of the decade ~ Since Obama took office in November unemployment has jumped from 6.5% to 9.7% current: stats).

Salaries have been frozen and in many cases decreased, currencies around the world have played a cycle of fluctuating, falling and rising, contributing to inflation woes and a myriad of problems concerning the instability of the private school industry. If the number of teachers continues to rise, there is little doubt that the ESL industry will continue to operate as it has in the past, as a ‘gap job’ or ‘savings grace’ to those looking for a bailout of their own in a time of financial strain and panic. 

Please continue reading ESL Daily in the upcoming weeks to hear more <Don’t miss out, sign up for our newsletter>. 
Next article:
Effects of the Recession Hits ESL: Study Two ~ Fewer Jobs???


Related articles:
1. Intro: Economic Woes and the EFL Community: The concern

2. Economic Woes and the EFL Community: Hardest Hit EFL Destination Countries

3. Economic Woes and the EFL Community: Hardest Hit English Speaking Home countries

4. Economic Woes and the EFL Community: Prepare and Protect

5. Economic Woes and the EFL Community: Concluding Remarks