Childcare Workers
Attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions. Perform a variety of tasks, such as dressing, feeding, bathing, and overseeing play.
Most important skills
- Monitoring
- Service Orientation
- Social Perceptiveness
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Coordination
- Reading Comprehension
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Education and Training
- Public Safety and Security
- Psychology
- Administration and Management
- Personnel and Human Resources
- Mathematics
What the work involves
- 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.
- Discipline children and recommend or initiate other measures to control behavior, such as caring for own clothing and picking up toys and books.
- Identify signs of emotional or developmental problems in children and bring them to parents' or guardians' attention.
- Observe and monitor children's play activities.
- Keep records on individual children, including daily observations and information about activities, meals served, and medications administered.
- Instruct children in health and personal habits, such as eating, resting, and toilet habits.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Social, Artistic, Conventional.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (38.5% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 1 year, up to and including 2 years (34.7%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (44.4%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Childcare Workers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 82% of occupations compared | 83% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Moderate | Lower on dealing with the public than 51% of occupations compared | 34% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 67% of occupations compared | 65% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 61% of occupations compared | 54% of surveyed respondents chose “Some freedom” |
| Time pressure | Low | Lower on time pressure than 77% of occupations compared | 30% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Conflict situations | Very high | Higher on conflict situations than 82% of occupations compared | 31% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Moderate | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 59% of occupations compared | 32% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Consequence of error | Low | Lower on consequence of error than 64% of occupations compared | — |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: low
- Conflict situations: very high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: moderate
- Consequence of error: low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0.16%
- Occasional contact with others: 1.67%
- Contact with others about half the time: 3.15%
- Contact with others most of the time: 11.91%
- Constant contact with others: 83.12%
n = 64, Incumbent 08/2018
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 17.95%
- Fairly important: 8.3%
- Important: 24.76%
- Very important: 14.98%
- Extremely important: 34.01%
n = 63, Incumbent 08/2018
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 2.26%
- Fairly important: 3.96%
- Important: 4.9%
- Very important: 23.51%
- Extremely important: 65.38%
n = 64, Incumbent 08/2018
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 1.35%
- Very little freedom: 3.21%
- Limited freedom: 14.1%
- Some freedom: 53.62%
- A lot of freedom: 27.73%
n = 64, Incumbent 08/2018
Time pressure
- Never: 11.11%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 7.11%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 30.28%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 24.86%
- Every day: 26.65%
n = 62, Incumbent 08/2018
Conflict situations
- Never: 15.65%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 12.69%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 16.52%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 24.46%
- Every day: 30.68%
n = 64, Incumbent 08/2018
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 15.25%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 28.01%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 15.27%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 31.6%
- Every day: 9.86%
n = 64, Incumbent 08/2018
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 25.68%
- Fairly serious: 23.31%
- Serious: 12.12%
- Very serious: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Extremely serious: 4.7%
n = 60, Incumbent 08/2018
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O*NET-SOC 39-9011.00 · SOC 39-9011 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8