Middle School Teachers
(Except Special and Career/Technical Education)

Minimal Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
6.1/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

12% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Coordinating others’ work

Very important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Very important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Show 5 more strengths

Education and training expertise

Very important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 191 votes

28% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 12% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education was $62,970 ($30 per hour).

The median annual wage for Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education was 27.2% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education' job openings is expected to decline 2.0% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 620,370 people employed as 'Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education' within the United States.

This represents around 0.40% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 248 people are employed as 'Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education'.

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What people are saying (13)

Leave a comment
EM (Moderate)
08 May 2023 17:00
AI will be the source for content/lessons in-person learning will be reserved for the affluent.
Mun seosol
06 Nov 2020 05:48
I don't think it's going to be replaced by robots because it's a job to maintain close relationships with students.
ㄱㅁㅈ
06 Nov 2020 00:34
Teachers also have a duty to educate students about their morality and personality. A.I. will never be able to do this.
Benedict
08 Jun 2020 02:51
Being a teacher is really complex and unique. I do not think a robot can do it.
Suman Raghuram (No chance)
12 Mar 2020 17:10
Children need validation and a teacher s comment and praise which boosts their confidence. This cannot be done by AI. AI is too unemotional and this does not work.
Jeff (No chance)
16 Dec 2019 15:42
As a teacher, there is too much of a human element to rely solely on technology to do this work.
Isabel Radka (No chance)
28 Oct 2019 22:39
The human element is too important
Alexander (Low)
12 May 2019 03:52
Kinda hard for a machine to listen to students, make questions properly and have discipline. Teaching humanity and values isn't a task a robot can do from my point of view. At least not in the approx. 20 years.
Steven
13 Jul 2020 11:03
“Discipline” needs to be removed from schools as it is discriminatory and dehumanising. If you’re talking about teachers having self-discipline, that is not something an AI would need. Computers have limitless stamina and focus.
Matt
24 Jul 2024 21:20
tell me you dont understand schools, teaching or kids without saying you don't understand schools, teaching or kids.

You might want to stick to topics you have, at least a little knowledge of. You wont look so silly then.
Clark Yang
03 Apr 2019 06:01
Since teachers have different ways of thinking to their students, and they have to prepare different plans and ways of teaching in order to help their students to learn. Since Artificial Intelligence may not have emotion as humans do, they can’t use the same ways of teaching to different types of students.
Steven
13 Jul 2020 11:01
AI can be adaptive, what utter nonsense.
Plungerman (No chance)
29 May 2024 15:53
they can't evolve their teachings like a human teacher can
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Job description

Teach one or more subjects to students at the middle, intermediate, or junior high school level.

O*NET-SOC code: 25-2022.00