Staff members increased by 147 and full-time equivalents by 167
In December 2007 there were 5,159 staff members working 4,368 full-time equivalent jobs in Icelandic pre-primary schools. Never before have more people worked in pre-primary schools in Iceland. The previous year there were 5,012 staff members working 4,201 full-time equivalent jobs, resulting in an increase by 147 since 2006, or 2.9%. The number of males among staff members increased by 12, or by 7.1%, while the number of females increased by 135, or by 2.8%.

The number of full-time equivalent jobs has increased by 167 since December 2006, a 4.0% increase. The increase in full-time equivalent jobs is greater than the increase in number of staff, indicating that staff members have increased their workload. In December 1998 41.5% of staff members in pre-primary schools had one full-time job or more, while in 2007 52.6% of all employees had at least one full-time job.

The number of educated pre-primary teachers decreases
The number of educated pre-primary school teachers decreased since 2006 after a continuous increase since the year 2000. In 2007 32.6% of staff members working in education and child care were qualified pre-school teachers compared to 33.5% in 2006. In addition 0.4% of staff members have completed a diploma in pre-primary school education and 6.4% have completed other pedagogical education (figure 1). Thus, a total of 39.4% of staff in education and child care have completed some pedagogical education, a decrease of 0.8% from the previous year.

An increase among the oldest staff members
The largest age group among staff members in pre-primary schools is 30-39 years old, as in the past years. From 1998 to 2004 the age group 20-29 was the largest among staff members in pre-primary schools. A total of 265 staff members were younger than 20 years old in December 2007 (5.1%) while they were 198 in the previous year. Staff members who are 60 years old or older numbered 292, or 5.7% of all staff members. Never before have there been more staff members belonging to this age group and their proportion has increased year by year since 2002.

It is interesting to note that the number of educated pre-school teachers decreases in the youngest age groups. There are 25 fewer educated pre-school teachers aged 20-49 than in 2006. On the other hand, the number of educated pre-school teachers aged 50 and older increased by 29 since 2006. Thus, only four more educated pre-school teachers are teaching in 2007 than in 2006.

An increase in staff turnover
The turnover among personnel between the years 2006 and 2007 was 25.5%; an increase from the previous year when the staff turnover was 24.1% (figure 2). The turnover rate is greater among unskilled personnel. The turnover rate is highest among cleaning personnel, 41.9%, which is similar to the year before. A total of 896 unskilled staff members working in education and child care in 2006 had left their jobs in 2007, or 33.6%. The turnover is lowest among headmasters, assistant headmasters and department heads (7.1-9.7%). Among educated pre-school teachers the turnover is 10.0%.

It should be noted that the turnover rate refers to two individual measurements. Therefore personnel who started working in 2007 and left their jobs in the first 11 months of the year are not included in the data.