Career Trends: Pest Control Workers

Pest control workers remove unwanted creatures, such as roaches, rats, ants, bedbugs, and termites that infest buildings and surrounding areas.

Pest control workers must travel to clients’ sites. Workers often kneel, bend, and crawl in tight spaces to inspect sites. Because there are health risks associated with pesticide use, workers are trained in pesticide safety and sometimes wear protective gear, including respirators, gloves, and goggles. Working evenings and weekends is common.

State laws require pest control workers to be licensed. Most workers need a high school diploma and receive on-the-job training, usually lasting less than 3 months.

Employment of pest control workers is projected to show little or no change from 2014 to 2024. Job opportunities should be good because of the limited number of people seeking work in pest control and the need to replace workers who leave this occupation.

This occupation supported 65,400 jobs in 2012 and 74,100 jobs in 2014, reflecting an increase of 13.3%. In 2012, this occupation was projected to increase by 19.6% in 2022 to 78,200 jobs. As of 2014, to keep pace with prediction, the expected number of jobs was 67,900, compared with an observed value of 74,100, 9.1% higher than expected. This indicates current employment trends are much better than the 2012 trend within this occupation. In 2014, this occupation was projected to decrease by 1.4% in 2024 to 73,200 jobs. Linear extrapolation of the 2012 projection for 2022 results in an expected number of 80,700 jobs for 2024, 10.2% higher than the 2014 projection for 2024. This indicates expectations for future employment trends are much worse than the 2012 trend within this occupation.