Career Trends: Social and Human Service Assistants

Social and human service assistants provide client services, including support for families, in a wide variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, and social work. They assist other workers, such as social workers, and they help clients find benefits or community services.

Social and human service assistants work for nonprofit organizations, for-profit social service agencies, and state and local governments. They generally work full time, and some work nights and weekends.

Requirements for social and human service assistants vary, although they typically have at least a high school diploma and must complete a brief period of on-the-job training. Some employers prefer to hire workers who have additional education or experience.

Employment of social and human service assistants is projected to grow 11 percent from 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all occupations. There should be good job prospects, because low pay and heavy workloads cause many workers to leave this occupation.

This occupation supported 372,700 jobs in 2012 and 386,600 jobs in 2014, reflecting an increase of 3.7%. In 2012, this occupation was projected to increase by 21.8% in 2022 to 453,900 jobs. As of 2014, to keep pace with prediction, the expected number of jobs was 388,900, compared with an observed value of 386,600, 0.6% lower than expected. This indicates current employment trends are about on track with the 2012 trend within this occupation. In 2014, this occupation was projected to increase by 11.9% in 2024 to 430,800 jobs. Linear extrapolation of the 2012 projection for 2022 results in an expected number of 470,100 jobs for 2024, 9.1% higher than the 2014 projection for 2024. This indicates expectations for future employment trends are much worse than the 2012 trend within this occupation.