A study examined the relation between the esteem, autonomy, job satisfaction, demographic characteristics, and expressed desire of industrial education teachers to leave the teaching profession. The study population consisted of 45 full-time industrial education teachers who taught in small, medium, and large departments (15 teachers from each category) in public comprehensive high schools located in downstate Illinois outside Chicago and its suburbs. Telephone interviews were used to gather data on the aforementioned variables, and the teachers' responses were recorded by using a six-point Likert-type scale. More than half of the teachers either did not intend to continue teaching or were unsure if they would continue teaching for the next five years. Low correlations were found between the decision to quit teaching and each of two measures: (1) mean satisfaction; and (2) satisfaction with salary and benefits. There was essentially no correlation between the intention to quit teaching and either mean actual esteem or mean actual autonomy, although the intention to quit teaching had a moderate negative correlation with principal recognition. There was essentially no correlation between the stated intention to quit teaching and any of the demographic characteristics examined. A multiple regression approach to predict general satisfaction identified principal recognition, satisfaction with teaching assignment, years in current assignment, and age, respectively, as accounting for 39 percent of the variance in general satisfaction. (MN)