Teaching is attracting more recruits - suggesting that cash incentives are persuading graduates to become teachers.

With schools still complaining of staff shortages, the latest application figures for teacher training show that recruitment is increasing.

Applications for teacher training in England up to the end of July are 12.5% higher than at the same time last year, says the Graduate Teacher Training Registry.

This includes large rises for shortage subject areas which offer students "golden hellos" worth �4,000.

Physics is up by 20.3%, English by 17% and maths by 15.5%.

English continues to attract mostly female applicants, while maths and physics continue to attract more men.

Job security

Applications to teach information technology have risen by 69% - and this is in part believed to reflect the uncertainty within the computer industry.

Teaching, as a "recession-proof" job, has traditionally attracted more recruits when the employment market becomes more difficult.

But modern languages continued to struggle. Despite a 1.1% increase in French, there has been a fall of 5.5% in applications to teach German.

Altogether, applications to teach in secondary school have risen by 8.9%, by 24% in middle schools and 17.7% in primary schools.

There has been an even bigger increase in Scotland, up by 133%, which was attributed to the 35-hour week for teachers and also a change in how the figures are gathered.

In Wales, there is a year-on-year increase of 15%, but this has been driven by a 37% increase for teaching in primary schools, with only a 0.5% for secondary schools.

The overall increase in applications for teacher training for England, Wales and Scotland is 18.1%.