Teachers and would-be-teachers everywhere are searching the country for available positions.  The economic climate, which has lead to hiring-freezes, is to blame.  Historically speaking, education has always been a reliable profession.  One could anticipate each district or county have plenty of openings from year to year.  Teachers could comfortably assume that, no matter what happened in the rest of the world, their job would be safe.  Not so anymore.  With the trends leaning towards merit based-pay, and dismissal for sub-standard performance, teaching is anything but a safe profession.  Twenty years ago when a teacher entered the profession he or she was there to stay, sometimes for better or for worse.  Now, there is no guarantee.  People are holding on tightly to their current positions unsure of when the tide might change for them.  Meanwhile, thousands of college graduates look desperately for teaching positions.  The theory is that as competition for the select positions available increases so will the caliber of teachers hired.  So the search continues, for the best teachers, for the available positions.