Nearly 170 full-time teacher positions will be axed in Christchurch this week as a result of the earthquakes which have forced many pupils to move to other cities around the country.
This represents 4.5% of the city's 3690 education workforce.
The situation has left College of Education student Ralph Miller with the odds stacked against his finding work as a teacher.
"There's much more qualified competition for jobs out there now."
Mr Miller (27) said he had completed his graduate diploma in teaching (primary) and would graduate in May next year.
Although he was still to register as a teacher, he was already looking for teaching jobs in Otago.
Of the 42 students who had qualified to teach next year, only nine had jobs. Most were in Auckland, he said.
"It's a daunting situation. It's going to be a long process." Mr Miller said he would put himself on the Dunedin schools' list of relief teachers, and pick up as much work as he could until he found a full-time job.
Otago and Southland Principals' Association chairman Philip Craigie said teaching jobs in Dunedin were already "stifled".
He believed many of the Christchurch teachers, and teaching graduates around the country, were unlikely to find jobs next year, and would have to find jobs in other professions.
"The Christchurch impact is looking quite grim really." University of Otago College of Education Dean Prof Lisa Smith was more optimistic.
"Any impact [of the Canterbury redundancies] would partly depend on how many redundant teachers choose to take up the Government's extra provisions, which include joining the new relief teaching pool, secondment to other education-focused organisations or retraining."
Prof Smith noted Otago teaching graduates traditionally found positions at schools throughout the country. There were no plans to cut the College of Education intake, she said.
