Keeping with longstanding tradition here at Better Burque (and formerly at Burque Babble), we’ll take another of our periodic looks at how many teaching job openings currently exist at Albuquerque Public Schools.

The data collection is darn simple. We just add up the Elementary, Middle, High, and Special Education positions posted on the APS job webpage, then often ponder and gnash our professional teeth about it.

Today we’ll keep it simple and just “report” the numbers. Of course, job openings in K-12 education swing wildly over the course of a school year, and the end of July is usually the apex in terms of numbers.

Looking back, I can’t seem to find a late July post from previous years, but here’s a look at openings in late August 2014:

Counting that up, we get:

• High: 19
• Middle: 15
• Elementary: 70
• Special: 97
• Total: 191

Back to 2017, one thing that has changed since 2014 is the job board interface.

Now using “WinOcular,” APS has made it both easier and harder to find what a job seeker (or job opening counter) might be looking for. Gone is the default “home” page with numbers of jobs in each category, but the search feature is pretty good and allows us to compile the following:

• High: 33
• Middle: 24
• Elementary: 56
• Special: 115
• Total: 208

As mentioned above, we’ll dispense with pondering and teeth-gnashing about these figures, particularly given the apples/oranges comparative of late July v. late August numbers. Still, as naturally underpins every such look, one wonders if the job conditions for teachers, as well as overall economy, these days isn’t reflected rather pointedly in the number of openings.

We’ll look again in late August to see how filling these openings has gone. In the meantime, enjoy your continued break stagnantly-paid, underappreciated teachers!