Drawing on official data, this article looks at the phenomenon of teacher shortage in Portugal and its implications for teacher education. It includes a quantitative analysis of needs of the system to renew the teaching workforce alongside aspects of mass teacher retirement and a decline in teaching candidates. Issues such as negative media portrayal, intensification of teachers' work, and reactive policies to teacher recruitment and teacher education have contributed to the declining status of the teaching profession. The paper discusses the danger of adopting a 'deficit discourse' in teacher education along with the shift towards managerial professionalism, which could erode the quality and status of the profession. It is argued that there is a need to go beyond quick-fixes and emergency responses and to invest in a comprehensive, long-term strategy that balances both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of teacher recruitment and teacher education.