Teaching jobs in Florida are on the rise and are expected to continue to grow.

In July 2008, Florida's education and health services industry employed 1,038,700 people, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, an increase of 3.3 percent from last year.

Teaching jobs in Florida, especially for elementary school teachers, should continue to increase in the next few years, mostly because a large number of teachers are expected to retire and elementary school enrollments are expected to grow, according to an article from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

"The demand for elementary school teachers will also be dependent on state and local government expenditures for education and the enactment of legislation intended to increase the quality of education," the article notes. "Several new constitutional amendments, such as reduced class size and mandatory preschool for 4-year-olds, have been passed in Florida, and will also result in a large number of openings for elementary school teachers over the next decade."

Every state requires teachers to be licensed and Florida requires teachers to have a degree corresponding with the area in which they wish to teach. Candidates also must complete an approved teacher training program and supervised practice teaching.

In Florida, public primary and secondary schools are administered by the Florida Department of Education. The state's public school revenue per student and spending per $1,000 of personal income rank in the bottom 25 percent of states and teaching salaries rank near the middle.

Elementary school teachers in Florida receive a salary of $40,192 per year, while most elementary school teachers make between $30,185 and $48,474.

In 2007, Florida's school population grew by 477 students to 2,641,598, below the projected increase of 48,376 students. This was mainly due to rising insurance and property tax costs, as well as major hurricane damage.

Teachers may be responsible for designing classroom presentations to meet student needs and abilities, working with students individually, planning, evaluating and assigning lessons, preparing, administering and grading tests, listening to oral presentations and maintaining classroom discipline.

As far as colleges, Florida is home to the State University System of Florida and the Florida Community Colleges System. There also is an association of 28 private educational institutions deemed the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, which served more than 121,000 students in fall 2006.

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