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Social Services, Except Legislature

Nature of the Industry  |  Working Conditions  |  Employment  |  Occupations in the Industry
Training and Advancement  |  Job Outlook  |  Earnings

Significant Points

• About 7 out of 10 jobs are in professional and service occupations.
• Several occupations concentrated in social services—social and human service assistants, personal and home care aides, and home health aides—are among the fastest growing occupations in the economy.
• Average earnings are low because of the large number of part-time and low-paying service jobs.

Nature of the Industry

Careers in social services appeal to persons with a strong desire to make life better and easier for others. Workers in this industry usually are good communicators and enjoy interacting with people. Social services workers help the homeless, housebound, and infirm cope with circumstances of daily living; counsel troubled and emotionally disturbed individuals; train or retrain the unemployed or underemployed; care for the elderly and the physically and mentally disabled; help the needy obtain financial assistance; and solicit contributions for various social services organizations. About 102,000 establishments in the private sector provided social services in 1997. Thousands of other establishments, mainly in State and local government, provided many additional social services. (For information about government social services, see the Career Guide statements on Federal Government , and State and local government, excluding education and hospitals.) 

Social services contain four segments—individual and miscellaneous social services, residential care, job training and related services, and childcare services. (The childcare services industry, including daycare and preschool care centers, is covered in a separate Career Guide statement.) 

Individual and miscellaneous social services establishments provide counseling and welfare services including refugee, disaster, and temporary-relief services. Government offices distribute welfare aid, rent supplements, and food stamps. Some agencies provide adult daycare, home-delivered meals, and home health and personal care services. Other services concentrate on children, such as big brother and sister organizations, youth centers, and adoption services. Workers in crisis centers may focus on individual, marriage, child, or family counseling. Also included are many different kinds of establishments, such as advocacy groups, antipoverty boards, community development groups, and health and welfare councils. Many miscellaneous social services organizations are concerned with community improvement and social change. They may solicit contributions, administer appropriations, and allocate funds among other agencies engaged in social welfare services. 

Residential care facilities provide around-the-clock social and personal care to children, the elderly, and others who have limited ability to care for themselves. Workers care for residents of alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers, group homes, and halfway houses. Nursing and medical care, however, is not the main focus of establishments providing residential care, as it is in nursing or personal care facilities. (See the statement on health services, elsewhere in the Career Guide.) 

Job training and related services establishments train the unemployed, underemployed, disabled, and others with job market disadvantages. Vocational specialists and counselors work with clients to overcome deficient education, job skills, or experience. Often industrial psychologists or career counselors will assess the job skills of a client and, working with both the employer and the client, decide whether the client would be better served by taking additional job training, by being placed in a different job with his or her current skills, or by having the job restructured to accommodate any skill deficiency.

Working Conditions

Some social services establishments—such as residential care facilities—operate around the clock. Thus, evening, weekend, and holiday work is not uncommon. Some establishments may be understaffed, resulting in large caseloads for each worker. Jobs in voluntary, nonprofit agencies often are part time. 

Some workers spend a substantial amount of time traveling within the local area. For example, home health and personal care aides routinely visit clients in their homes; social workers and social and human service assistants also may make home visits. In 1999, the incidence rate for occupational injury and illness in social services varied by industry sector. Compared with the rate of 6.3 per 100 full-time workers for the entire private sector, job training and related services had a higher rate of 9.2. On the other hand, individual and family services had a lower than average rate of 4.5. 

Employment

In 1997, about 65 percent of social services establishments employed fewer than 10 workers; however, larger establishments accounted for most jobs (see chart).

Social services workers are somewhat older than workers in other industries (table 2). About 41 percent were 45 years old or older, compared with 35 percent of all workers. Jobs in social services are concentrated in large States with heavily populated urban areas, such as New York and California.
 

Table 2. Percent distribution of employment in social services by age group, 2000
Age group	Social services	All industries
Total	100.0	100.0
16 to 24	11.7	15.3
25 to 34	23.4	22.6
35 to 44	24.1	27.1
45 to 54	23.9	22.0
55 to 64	12.2	10.1
65 and older	4.6	3.0

Occupations in the Industry

Almost one-third of nongovernment social service jobs are in professional and related occupations (table 3). Social workers counsel and assess the needs of clients, refer them to the appropriate sources of help, and monitor their progress. They may specialize in child welfare and family services, mental health, medical social work, school social work, community organization activities, or clinical social work. Social and human service assistants serve in a variety of social and human service delivery settings. Job titles and duties of these workers vary, but they include human service worker, case management aide, social work assistant, mental health aide, child abuse worker, community outreach worker, and gerontology aide. Counselors help people evaluate their interests and abilities and advise and assist them with personal and social problems. 

Almost 4 out of 10 nongovernment jobs in social services are in service occupations. Residential advisors develop and coordinate nonmedical activities for residents of long-term care and treatment facilities, such as assisted-living housing for the elderly. The social services industry employs more than half of all residential advisors. Personal and home care aides help elderly, disabled, and ill persons live in their own homes instead of an institution by providing routine personal care services. Although some are employed by public or private agencies, many are self-employed. Persons in food preparation and serving related occupations serve residents at social services institutions. Nursing or home health aides provide health-related services for ill, injured, disabled, elderly, or infirm individuals either in institutions or in their homes. 

As in most industries, office and administrative support workers—secretaries and bookkeepers , for example—as well as managers account for many jobs. However, social services employ a much smaller percentage of production; installation, maintenance, and repair; and sales jobs than does the economy as a whole. 

Certain occupations are more heavily concentrated in some segments of the industry than in others. Individual and miscellaneous social services, for example, employ the greatest numbers of social workers, social and human service assistants, and personal and home care aides. Job training and vocational rehabilitation services provide the most jobs for adult literacy and remedial education teachers and instructors. Nursing and psychiatric and home health aides and food preparation and serving related workers work mainly in the residential care segment of the industry. 

Training & Advancement

Many employers prefer social and human service assistants with some related work experience or college courses in human services, social work, or one of the social or behavioral sciences. Other employers prefer an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree in human services or social work. A number of employers provide in-service training, such as seminars and workshops.

Entry-level jobs for social workers require a bachelor’s degree in social work or in an undergraduate major such as psychology or sociology. However, most agencies require a master’s degree in social work or a closely related field. Public agencies and private practice clinics that offer clinical or consultative services require an advanced degree in clinical social work; supervisory, administrative, and staff training positions usually require at least a master’s degree.
 

Table 3. Employment of wage and salary workers in social services, except childcare by occupation, 2000 and projected change, 2000-10 (Employment in thousands)
Occupation	Employment, 2000		Percent change, 2000-10
	Number	Percent
All occupations	2,191	100.0	42.3
Management, business, and financial occupations	262	12.0	33.7
General and operations managers	53	2.4	33.2
Social and community service managers	37	1.7	34.5
Human resources, training, and labor relations specialists	26	1.2	23.3
Professional and related occupations	684	31.2	45.6
Social scientists and related occupations	16	0.7	37.4
Educational, vocational, and school counselors	21	1.0	47.2
Mental health counselors	27	1.3	26.0
Rehabilitation counselors	69	3.2	26.5
Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors	23	1.0	47.6
Social and human service assistants	129	5.9	76.6
Child, family, and school social workers	85	3.9	38.0
Medical and public health social workers	19	0.9	33.4
Mental health and substance abuse social workers	23	1.0	62.6
Preschool teachers, except special education	21	0.9	9.5
Teacher assistants	29	1.3	34.5
Registered nurses	30	1.4	50.4
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses	23	1.0	40.7
Service occupations	853	38.9	50.3
Home health aides	226	10.3	42.4
Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants	62	2.8	64.9
Cooks, institution and cafeteria	29	1.3	46.8
Food and beverage serving workers	22	1.0	42.9
Building cleaning workers	61	2.8	42.6
Child care workers	62	2.8	57.2
Personal and home care aides	225	10.3	64.2
Recreation workers	23	1.1	27.3
Residential advisors	23	1.0	30.8
Sales and related occupations	22	1.0	31.4
Office and administrative support occupations	245	11.2	21.7
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	28	1.3	19.6
Receptionists and information clerks	27	1.2	40.5
Office clerks, general	41	1.9	35.4
Executive secretaries and administrative assistants	38	1.7	23.1
Secretaries, except legal, medical, and executive	34	1.5	9.7
Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations	21	1.0	35.0
Production occupations	36	1.6	28.0
Transportation and material moving occupations	64	2.9	30.0
Motor vehicle operators	38	1.7	33.7
NOTE: May not add to totals due to omission of occupations with small employment.

 
Volunteering with a student, religious, or charitable organization is a good way for persons to test their interest in social services, and may provide an advantage when applying for jobs in this industry.

Advancement paths vary. For example, some personal and home care aides as well as some nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants, and home health aides get additional training and become licensed practical nurses. Formal education—usually a bachelor’s or master’s degree in counseling, human services, rehabilitation, social work, or a related field—almost always is necessary for social and human service assistants to advance. Social workers with an advanced degree and the appropriate license can advance to supervisor, program manager, assistant director, or executive director of an agency or department. They also may enter private practice and provide psychotherapeutic counseling and other services on a contract basis. Private practice for social workers depends on the affordability of services, including the availability of funding from third parties. 

Job Outlook

Job opportunities in social services should be numerous through the year 2010. The number of nongovernment wage and salary jobs is expected to increase 42 percent, compared with only 15 percent for all industries combined. Expected growth rates for the various segments of the industry are 29 percent in individual and miscellaneous social services, 32 percent in job training and related services, and 64 percent in residential care over the 2000-10 period. In addition to employment growth, many job openings will stem from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or stop working. 

The expected growth is mostly due to expanding services for the elderly. Services also will grow for the mentally ill, the physically disabled, and families in crisis. In addition, older people make up a rapidly expanding segment of the population and are more likely than younger people to need social services, and businesses are implementing more employee-counseling programs. The growing emphasis on providing home care services rather than more costly nursing home or hospital care, and on earlier and better integration of the physically disabled and mentally ill into society, also will contribute to employment growth in the social services industry, as will increased demand for drug and alcohol abuse prevention programs. The expansion and creation of employment in the social services industry may rely on the amount of funding made available by the government and managed-care organizations. 

Some of the fastest growing occupations in the Nation are concentrated in social services. Compared with industry growth of 42 percent, the number of nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides within social services is projected to grow 48 percent between 2000 and 2010; social and human service assistants, 77 percent; and personal and home care aides, 64 percent. Overall employment of social workers will continue to grow, but not as rapidly as that of social and human service assistants, as the cost-containment efforts of managed-care organizations limit demand for clinical social workers. 

Earnings

Source: Career Guide to Industries, Bureau of Labor Statistics

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