Childcare Workers
Human ServicesO*NET 39-9011.00United States
Attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions. Perform a variety of tasks, such as dressing, feeding, bathing, and overseeing play.
- Median annual earnings
- $32,111
- Projected change
- −4.3%
- Typical education
- High school diploma or less
- Employment
- 1.27M jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
52.8% of the workforce
Growing to 1.22M by 2035
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ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
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The work
What childcare workers do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Maintain a safe play environment.
- Observe and monitor children's play activities.
- Communicate with children's parents or guardians about daily activities, behaviors, and related issues.
- Support children's emotional and social development, encouraging understanding of others and positive self-concepts.
- Care for children in institutional setting, such as group homes, nursery schools, private businesses, or schools for people with disabilities.
- Sanitize toys and play equipment.
- Dress children and change diapers.
- Keep records on individual children, including daily observations and information about activities, meals served, and medications administered.
- Identify signs of emotional or developmental problems in children and bring them to parents' or guardians' attention.
- Instruct children in health and personal habits, such as eating, resting, and toilet habits.
- Organize and store toys and materials to ensure order in activity areas.
- Perform general administrative tasks, such as taking attendance, editing internal paperwork, and making phone calls.
- Perform housekeeping duties, such as laundry, cleaning, dish washing, and changing of linens.
- Create developmentally appropriate lesson plans.
- Read to children and teach them simple painting, drawing, handicrafts, and songs.
- Assist in preparing food and serving meals and refreshments to children.
- Discipline children and recommend or initiate other measures to control behavior, such as caring for own clothing and picking up toys and books.
- Regulate children's rest periods.
- Organize and participate in recreational activities and outings, such as games and field trips.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $19,143
- 25th percentile
- $24,311
- 50th percentile
- $32,111
- 75th percentile
- $39,170
- 90th percentile
- $52,334
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $32,111 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
−4.3%projected to decline
20251,271,072 jobs
2035 projected1,216,217 jobs
54,855 fewer positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- High school diploma or less
- 52.8%
- Associate degree
- 22.7%
- Some college
- 10.2%
- Bachelor's degree
- 8.7%
- Certificate
- 5.6%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Child Care Assistants1,303 postings
- 02Child Care Workers721 postings
- 03Care Providers337 postings
- 04Child Care Professionals166 postings
- 05Childcare Directors155 postings
- 06Substitutes115 postings
- 07Nursery Workers113 postings
- 08Day Care Assistants79 postings
- 09Child Care Assistant Administrators61 postings
- 10Nursery Supervisors51 postings
- 11Associate Center Directors34 postings
- 12Childcare Center Assistant Directors33 postings
- 13Before and After School Teachers26 postings
- 14Day Care Providers20 postings
- 15Care Workers18 postings
- 16Lead Educators15 postings
- 17Residential Care Workers15 postings
- 18Home Care Providers14 postings
- 19Child Care Aides13 postings
- 20Substitute Educators13 postings
Top employers
- 01Bright Horizons165 postings
- 02YMCA45 postings
- 03La Petite Academy44 postings
- 04Learning Care Group41 postings
- 05The Mentoring Alliance29 postings
- 06Right At School27 postings
- 07Brightpath Kids24 postings
- 08Childtime Learning Centers24 postings
- 09Hamilton County Schools24 postings
- 10KinderCare Education23 postings
- 11Center For Positive Changes21 postings
- 12The Salvation Army21 postings
- 13Club4 Fitness19 postings
- 14Gaudenzia17 postings
- 15Minneapolis Public Schools17 postings
- 16SYNERGY HomeCare17 postings
- 17U.S Coast Guard Community Services Command16 postings
- 18Chicanos Por La Causa15 postings
- 19Edjoin.Org15 postings
- 20Everbrook Academy14 postings
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