Education:
39%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)
23%
Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree)
Childcare Worker
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Job Outlook:
Decline
Education:
High school diploma or equivalent
Salary
High:
$39,090.00
Average:
$29,570.00
Hourly
Average:
$14.22
What they do:
Attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions. Perform a variety of tasks, such as dressing, feeding, bathing, and overseeing play.
On the job, you would:
- 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.
Important Qualities
Communication skills. Childcare workers need good speaking skills to provide direction or information effectively and good listening skills to understand parents’ instructions.
Decision-making skills. Good judgment is necessary for childcare workers so they can respond to emergencies or difficult situations.
Interpersonal skills. Childcare workers need to work well with people in order to develop good relationships with parents, children, and colleagues.
Patience. Childcare workers need to be able to respond calmly to overwhelming and difficult situations.
Physical stamina. Working with children can be physically demanding, so childcare workers should have a lot of energy.
Personality
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Characteristics of this Career |
|---|---|---|---|
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90% | Self-Control - Job requires maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations. | |
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87% | Integrity - Job requires being honest and ethical. | |
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87% | Stress Tolerance - Job requires accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high-stress situations. | |
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87% | Concern for Others - Job requires being sensitive to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful on the job. | |
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86% | Cooperation - Job requires being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude. | |
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82% | Attention to Detail - Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks. | |
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81% | Dependability - Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations. | |
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79% | Social Orientation - Job requires preferring to work with others rather than alone, and being personally connected with others on the job. | |
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78% | Adaptability/Flexibility - Job requires being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace. | |
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75% | Independence - Job requires developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done. | |
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73% | Initiative - Job requires a willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges. | |
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73% | Leadership - Job requires a willingness to lead, take charge, and offer opinions and direction. | |
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69% | Innovation - Job requires creativity and alternative thinking to develop new ideas for and answers to work-related problems. | |
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68% | Persistence - Job requires persistence in the face of obstacles. | |
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65% | Analytical Thinking - Job requires analyzing information and using logic to address work-related issues and problems. |
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Strengths |
|---|---|---|---|
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100% | Social - Work involves helping, teaching, advising, assisting, or providing service to others. Social occupations are often associated with social, health care, personal service, teaching/education, or religious activities. | |
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67% | Artistic - Work involves creating original visual artwork, performances, written works, food, or music for a variety of media, or applying artistic principles to the design of various objects and materials. Artistic occupations are often associated with visual arts, applied arts and design, performing arts, music, creative writing, media, or culinary art. |
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Values of the Work Environment |
|---|---|---|---|
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83% | Relationships - Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service. |
Aptitude
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Abilities | Cognitive, Physical, Personality |
|---|---|---|---|
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72% | Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. | |
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69% | Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. | |
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66% | Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem. |
Job Details
Responsibilities
Arrange childcare or educational settings to ensure physical safety of children.
Discuss child development and behavior with parents or guardians.
Prepare foods or meals.
Develop educational or training programs.
Develop daily schedules for children or families.
Perform administrative or clerical tasks.
Organize recreational activities or events.
Care for patients with mental illnesses.
Train service staff.
Assign duties or work schedules to employees.
Perform human resources activities.
Provide counsel, comfort, or encouragement to individuals or families.
Assist individuals with special needs.
Clean tools or equipment.
Teach daily living skills or behaviors.
Monitor health or behavior of people or animals.
Discuss child development and behavior with parents or guardians.
Monitor activities of individuals to ensure safety or compliance with rules.
Maintain client information or service records.
Teach health or hygiene practices.
Teach daily living skills or behaviors.
Arrange items for use or display.
Arrange childcare or educational settings to ensure physical safety of children.
Clean tools or equipment.
Provide for basic needs of children.
Teach daily living skills or behaviors.
Perform housekeeping duties.
Accompany individuals or groups to activities.
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Attributes & Percentage of Time Spent |
|---|---|---|---|
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94% | Contact With Others - How much does this job require the worker to be in contact with others (face-to-face, by telephone, or otherwise) in order to perform it? | |
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89% | Face-to-Face Discussions - How often do you have to have face-to-face discussions with individuals or teams in this job? | |
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87% | Work With Work Group or Team - How important is it to work with others in a group or team in this job? | |
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82% | Physical Proximity - To what extent does this job require the worker to perform job tasks in close physical proximity to other people? | |
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80% | Indoors, Environmentally Controlled - How often does this job require working indoors in environmentally controlled conditions? | |
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77% | Structured versus Unstructured Work - To what extent is this job structured for the worker, rather than allowing the worker to determine tasks, priorities, and goals? | |
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76% | Freedom to Make Decisions - How much decision making freedom, without supervision, does the job offer? | |
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74% | Responsible for Others' Health and Safety - How much responsibility is there for the health and safety of others in this job? | |
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67% | Spend Time Standing - How much does this job require standing? | |
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65% | Coordinate or Lead Others - How important is it to coordinate or lead others in accomplishing work activities in this job? |
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Tasks & Values |
|---|---|---|---|
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80% | Assisting and Caring for Others - Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients. | |
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72% | Making Decisions and Solving Problems - Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems. | |
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68% | Thinking Creatively - Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions. | |
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67% | Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates - Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person. |
What Childcare Workers Do
Childcare workers prepare and organize mealtimes and snacks for children.
Childcare workers attend to children's needs while helping to foster early development. They may help younger children prepare for kindergarten or assist older children with homework.
Duties
Childcare workers typically do the following:
- Supervise and monitor the safety of children
- Prepare and organize mealtimes and snacks for children
- Help children keep good hygiene
- Change the diapers of infants and toddlers
- Organize activities or implement a curriculum that allows children to learn about the world and explore their interests
- Develop schedules and routines to ensure that children have enough physical activity, rest, and playtime
- Watch for signs of emotional or developmental problems in children and bring potential problems to the attention of parents or guardians
- Keep records of children’s progress, routines, and interests
Childcare workers read and play with babies and toddlers to introduce basic concepts. For example, they teach them how to share and take turns by playing games with other children.
Childcare workers help preschool-age children prepare for kindergarten. Young children learn from playing, questioning, and experimenting. Childcare workers use play and other instructional techniques to help children’s development. For example, they may use storytelling and rhyming games to teach language and vocabulary. They may help improve children’s social skills by having them work together to build something in a sandbox. Or they may teach about numbers by having children count when building with blocks. They also involve children in creative activities, such as art, dance, and music.
Childcare workers may also watch school-age children before and after school. They often help these children with their homework and may take them to afterschool activities, such as sports practices and club meetings.
During the summer, when children are out of school, childcare workers may watch older children as well as younger ones while the parents are at work.
The following are examples of types of childcare workers:
Childcare center workers work in facilities that include programs offering Head Start and Early Head Start. They often take a team-based approach and may work with preschool teachers and teacher assistants to teach children through a structured curriculum. They prepare daily and long-term schedules of activities to stimulate and educate the children in their care. They also monitor and keep records of the children’s progress.
Family childcare providers run a business out of their own homes to care for children during standard working hours. They need to ensure that their homes and all staff they employ meet the regulations for family childcare providers. They also prepare contracts that set rates of pay, when payment can be expected, and the number of hours children can be in care. Furthermore, they establish policies such as whether sick children can be in their care, who can pick children up, and how behavioral issues will be dealt with. Family childcare providers may market their services to prospective families.
Nannies work in the homes of the families whose children they care for. Most often, they work full time for one family. They may be responsible for driving children to school, appointments, or afterschool activities. Some live in the homes of the families employing them.
Work Environment
Childcare workers held about 945,900 jobs in 2022. The largest employers of childcare workers were as follows:
| Child day care services | 29% |
| Self-employed workers | 24 |
| Private households | 20 |
| Elementary and secondary schools; local | 8 |
| Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations | 7 |
Family childcare workers care for children in their own homes. They may convert a portion of their living space into a dedicated space for the children. Nannies usually work in their employers’ homes.
Many states limit the number of children that each staff member is responsible for by regulating the ratio of staff to children. Ratios vary with the age of the children. Childcare workers are responsible for relatively few babies and toddlers. However, workers may be responsible for greater numbers of older children.
Work Schedules
Childcare workers’ schedules vary, and part-time work is common.
Childcare centers usually are open year round, with long hours so that parents or guardians can drop off and pick up their children before and after work. Some centers employ full-time and part-time staff with staggered shifts to cover the entire day.
Family childcare providers may work long or irregular hours to fit parents’ work schedules. In some cases, these childcare providers offer evening and overnight care to meet the needs of families. After the children go home, family childcare providers often have more responsibilities, such as shopping for food or supplies, keeping records, and cleaning.
Nannies work either full or part time. Full-time nannies may work more than 40 hours a week to cover parents’ time commuting to and from work.
Getting Started
How to Become a Childcare Worker
Childcare workers typically need a high school degree or equivalent.
Education and training requirements vary by setting, state, and employer. They range from no formal education to a certification in early childhood education.
Education
Childcare workers’ education requirements vary. Some states require these workers to have a high school diploma or equivalent, but others do not have any education requirements for entry-level positions. Employers often prefer to hire workers who have at least a high school diploma. However, workers with postsecondary education or an early childhood education credential may qualify for higher level positions.
Although it is not required, bachelor's degree study in fields such as education, psychology, or family and consumer sciences may be helpful.
Childcare workers in Head Start and Early Head Start programs must meet specific education and certification requirements, which vary by work setting and job title.
States do not regulate educational requirements for nannies. However, some employers may prefer to hire workers with at least some formal instruction in childhood education or a related field, particularly when they will be hired as full-time nannies.
Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations
Many states require childcare centers, including those in private homes, to be licensed. To qualify for licensure, staff often must pass a background check, have a complete record of immunizations, and meet a minimum training requirement. Some states require staff to have certifications in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid.
Some states and employers require childcare workers to have a nationally recognized credential. Most often, states require the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential offered by the Council for Professional Recognition. Obtaining the CDA credential requires coursework, experience in the field, and a period during which the applicant is observed while working with children. The CDA credential must be renewed every 3 years.
Other organizations, such as The National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) may also offer optional accreditation.
Training
Many states and employers require providers to complete some training before beginning work. Also, many states require staff in childcare centers to complete a minimum number of training hours annually. Training may include information about topics such as safe sleep practices for infants.
Advancement
With a couple of years of experience and a bachelor’s degree, childcare workers may advance to become a preschool or childcare center director.
Job Outlook
Employment of childcare workers is projected to decline 2 percent from 2022 to 2032.
Despite declining employment, about 153,100 openings for childcare workers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. All of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
Employment
Parents or guardians who work will continue to need the assistance of childcare workers. However, the increasing cost of childcare may limit demand for these workers.
Contacts for More Information
For more information about becoming a childcare provider, visit
For more information about working as a nanny, visit
International Nanny Association
For more information about family childcare providers, visit
National Association for Family Child Care
For more information about early childhood education, visit
National Association for the Education of Young Children
For more information about professional credentials, visit
Similar Occupations
This table shows a list of occupations with job duties that are similar to those of childcare workers.
| Occupation | Job Duties | Entry-Level Education | Median Annual Pay, May 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Kindergarten and Elementary School Teachers |
Kindergarten and elementary school teachers instruct young students in basic subjects in order to prepare them for future schooling. |
Bachelor's degree | $61,620 |
|
Preschool and Childcare Center Directors |
Preschool and childcare center directors supervise and lead their staffs, design program plans, oversee daily activities, and prepare budgets. |
Bachelor's degree | $49,690 |
|
Preschool Teachers |
Preschool teachers educate and care for children younger than age 5 who have not yet entered kindergarten. |
Associate's degree | $35,330 |
|
Special Education Teachers |
Special education teachers work with students who have a wide range of learning, mental, emotional, and physical disabilities. |
Bachelor's degree | $62,950 |
|
Teacher Assistants |
Teacher assistants work with a licensed teacher to give students additional attention and instruction. |
Some college, no degree | $30,920 |