Parking Attendants
Park vehicles or issue tickets for customers in a parking lot or garage. May park or tend vehicles in environments such as a car dealership or rental car facility. May collect fee.
Most important skills
- Speaking
- Service Orientation
- Active Listening
- Social Perceptiveness
- Critical Thinking
- Writing
- Mathematics
- Monitoring
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Transportation
- Public Safety and Security
- Mathematics
- Production and Processing
- Education and Training
- Administrative
What the work involves
- Take numbered tags from customers, locate vehicles, and deliver vehicles, or provide customers with instructions for locating vehicles.
- Keep parking areas clean and orderly to ensure that space usage is maximized.
- Park and retrieve automobiles for customers in parking lots, storage garages, or new car lots.
- Greet customers and open their car doors.
- Inspect vehicles to detect any damage.
- Issue ticket stubs or place numbered tags on windshields, log tags or attach tag to customers' keys, and give customers matching tags for locating parked vehicles.
- Perform cash handling tasks, such as making change, balancing and recording cash drawer, or distributing tips.
- Explain and calculate parking charges, collect fees from customers, and respond to customer complaints.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Realistic, Conventional, Enterprising.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (60.8% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (46.8%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (74.9%)
- 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 Parking Attendants 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 | High | Higher on contact with others than 69% of occupations compared | 76% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 82% of occupations compared | 64% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | Very low | Lower on teamwork than 81% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 98% of occupations compared | 47% of surveyed respondents chose “Some freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very low | Lower on time pressure than 94% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Never” |
| Conflict situations | Moderate | Lower on conflict situations than 58% of occupations compared | 29% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very high | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 84% of occupations compared | 51% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Consequence of error | High | Higher on consequence of error than 71% of occupations compared | 45% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very low
- Conflict situations: moderate
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
- Consequence of error: high
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%
- Occasional contact with others: 7.54%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 16.96%
- Constant contact with others: 75.51%
n = 23, Incumbent 07/2015
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 2.82%
- Fairly important: 10.51%
- Important: 9.41%
- Very important: 13.69%
- Extremely important: 63.58%
n = 23, Incumbent 07/2015
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 8.9%
- Fairly important: 1.41%
- Important: 25.94%
- Very important: 28.19%
- Extremely important: 35.57%
n = 23, Incumbent 07/2015
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 23.2%
- Very little freedom: 19.18%
- Limited freedom: 5.88%
- Some freedom: 47.06%
- A lot of freedom: 4.69%
n = 23, Incumbent 07/2015
Time pressure
- Never: 35.77%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 2.21%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 22.02%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 6.9%
- Every day: 33.11%
n = 23, Incumbent 07/2015
Conflict situations
- Never: 22.37%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 29.13%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 16.69%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 18.09%
- Every day: 13.72%
n = 23, Incumbent 07/2015
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 2.82%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 1.41%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 50.52%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 30.93%
- Every day: 14.32%
n = 23, Incumbent 07/2015
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 11.91%
- Fairly serious: 21.5%
- Serious: 19.62%
- Very serious: 2.46%
- Extremely serious: 44.5%
n = 23, Incumbent 07/2015
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O*NET-SOC 53-6021.00 · SOC 53-6021 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8