I'm in Quebec. Half of our teaching graduates last 5 years or less before changing careers. Working conditions are atrocious. They're integrating special needs students with regular classes, and barely have half the resources they would need to do this successfully without slowing down the whole class. At my second internship, we had 5 students on intervention plans - in preschool.

My 6yo son needs OT for slight motor skill delays, and a neuropsych eval for ADHD. In the private sector, we can hopefully expect an appointment in 6mo for the former, and still no news as to when we'll have an appointment at all after a couple months on the waitlist. Both have a 2-3 year waitlist in the public sector. The school's (part-time, split with 2 other schools in the area) OT is on leave until February, with no replacement, and most other in-house support services are part-time too, and need an official diagnosis before they can really dedicate more time than punctual interventions for him.

All of these reasons, as well as many personal disagreements with the education program, is why I left the field before graduating. Not cause I wouldn't have liked teaching, but because I would have 100% been part of that aforementioned statistic. It's sad it came to this - I'm convinced young boys need more male teachers. But 7 years out of school, working as a programmer, I already make more and have better work-life balance than I'd ever have had as a teacher.

Tangentially related, but despite making a solid 6 figures, I still can't buy a house in a 1h+ radius around town (where most jobs in my field are located), as I've been priced out by the last 5 years' home values and interest rate hikes.

And as the other guy from Europe mentioned, we're in a similar situation: 25% of our population is 65 and up, so tons of people are leaving for retirement. COVID didn't help either, tons left a little earlier to avoid the crisis.

It's fucked.