New figures have revealed nearly 30 teachers have been drafted into the ranks at Aberdeen schools in the space of just three months.
The city council was facing a record vacancy level in March with 137 teaching jobs available.
But this has tumbled to 108, with the local authority taking steps to sign up recruits in advance of the August term.
Public sector staff have historically been hard to attract to the north-east, due to the high cost of living, but areas such as property prices have started falling since the oil downturn.
Last night, council education director Gayle Gorman, said the “programme of recruitment strategies” was paying dividends.
She added: “We have had some success in recruitment fairs in Ireland while we have also provided re-training packages for former oil workers.
“The city itself has also been a factor with positive media coverage in articles and promotion of the high quality of life Aberdeen has to offer.
“These factors have helped in higher retention rates and a reduction in the number of teachers retiring or leaving the profession.
This includes the majority of our internal probationers from last year at the bulk interviews we held in March. At the same interviews, we also managed to attract 30 external candidates into accepting positions in Aberdeen City from the same interviews.”
Council leader Jenny Laing has argued that training places should be increased to allow more teachers to be “trained and retained” in the north-east.
Education convener John Wheeler said: “Across Scotland, there is a teacher shortage issue and we feel the brunt of that in Aberdeen with the recent downturn in the local economy.
“Teacher recruitment and retention will be one of our top priorities as the administration sets out its policy goals in the coming months.”
But Liberal Democrat education committee member Martin Greig said: “While this is very encouraging to hear, there are still over 100 vacancies to fill and recruitment of teachers needs to be kept a close eye on by the administration.”
