The current study explores the motives for teacher attrition of newly qualified teachers who never started a teaching career and those dropping out after a short period. The analyses identified five reasons for exit attrition: ‘job satisfaction and relations with students’, ‘school management and support’, ‘workload’, ‘future prospect’ and ‘relations with parents’. The findings demonstrated that a lack of future prospects was the predominant reason for attrition. Furthermore, attrition differs according to gender, teaching degree and teachers' experience. Results reveal that exit attrition is highest for males and secondary school teachers.