EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

OCTOBER 2012 • VOLUME 1/ NUMBER 16

U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS | OCTOBER 2012 1 www.bls.gov

Employment and wages in community and social 

service occupations

Author: John I. Jones, Occupational Employment Statistics program

People who work in community and social service 

occupations are concerned with improving society 

and the lives of individuals. These workers perform a 

diverse array of duties that may include counseling individuals 

with substance abuse and behavioral problems, providing social 

assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning of 

families, and offering spiritual and moral guidance to members of 

a faith. This issue of BEYOND THE NUMBERS will give a broad 

overview of employment and wages in community and social 

service occupations. 

Careers in community and social service

There were 1.9 million community and social service occupations 

jobs in 2011, accounting for less than 1.5 percent of U.S. 

employment. It was one of the smaller major occupational 

Related articles

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available online at the following links:

y “Architecture and Engineering Occupations,“

OES Highlights, February 2012, 

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y “Occupational Employment and Wage Patterns

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U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS | OCTOBER 2012 2 www.bls.gov

BEYOND THENUMBERS EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

7,660

17,560

27,140

33,990

42,560

121,580

133,890

244,560

276,510

359,860

0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000

Religious workers, all other

Directors, religious activities and education

Counselors, all other

Marriage and family therapists

Clergy

Community and social service specialists, all other*

Healthcare social workers

Educational, guidance, school, and vocational counselors

Child, family, and school social workers

Social and human service assistants

Employment for the largest and smallest community and social services occupations, May 2011

Occupation

NOTE: Occupation titles followed by * have the same title, but not necessarily the same content as 2010 SOC occupations.

SOURCE:U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Employment

groups, with fewer jobs for the group as a whole than 

some single occupations had in 2011 (such as registered 

nurses, which had employment of 2.3 million). (For more 

information on occupational groups, see the U.S. Bureau 

of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics 

website: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm.) 

The largest occupations in the community and social 

service occupations group were social and human service 

assistants, with employment of 359,860; child, family, and 

school social workers (276,510); and educational, guidance, 

school, and vocational counselors (244,560). Religious 

workers, all other (7,660); directors, religious activities and 

education (17,560); and counselors, all other (27,140) were 

the smallest community and social service occupations. 

(See chart 1.)

Community and social service occupations had an annual 

mean wage of $43,830, which was just below the U.S. 

all-occupations mean wage of $45,230. Out of the 17 

occupations in the community and social service group, 

7 had a mean wage above the U. S. average and 10 had a 

mean wage below average. Some of the highest-paying 

occupations in the community and social service group 

were educational, guidance, school, and vocational 

counselors ($56,540); health educators ($52,150); and 

probation officers and correctional treatment specialists 

($52,110). Two of the lowest-paying occupations, social 

and human service assistants ($30,710) and religious 

workers, all other ($31,600), had the highest (359,860) 

and lowest (7,660) employment, respectively, in the 

occupational group. (See chart 2.)

Ownership of community and social 

service jobs

Although the private sector accounted for 83 percent 

of jobs across all occupations in 2011, the private sector 

made up only 60 percent of community and social service 

jobs. In the community and social services occupational 

group, one-quarter of private sector employment was 

Chart 1

NOTE: Occupation titles followed by * have the same title but not necessarily the same content as 2010 SOC occupations.

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS | OCTOBER 2012 3 www.bls.gov

BEYOND THENUMBERS EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

$30,710

$31,600

$37,070

$41,030

$41,250

$43,830

$44,410

$45,230

$50,500

$52,110

$52,150

$54,220

$56,540

$0 $10,000 $20,000 $30,000 $40,000 $50,000 $60,000

Social and human service assistants

Religious workers, all other

Rehabilitation counselors

Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors

Community and social service specialists, all other*

Community and social service occupations

Child, family, and school social workers

U.S. all occupations mean

Healthcare social workers

Probation officers and correctional treatment specialists

Health educators

Social workers, all other

Educational, guidance, school, and vocational counselors

Annual mean wages for the highest and lowest paying community and social service occupations, May 2011

Occupation

Annual mean wage

NOTE: Occupation titles followed by * have the same title, but not necessarily the same content as 2010 SOC occupations.

SOURCE:U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

found in one industry: individual and family services 

(employment of 282,360). Other large private industries 

with high numbers of jobs in community and social 

services were residential mental retardation, mental 

health, and substance abuse facilities (124,930); outpatient 

care centers (116,880); vocational rehabilitation services 

(81,960); and religious organizations (45,320). Local 

government, including schools and hospitals, had the 

highest employment in the public sector, with a total 

of 439,040 community and social service jobs. State 

government, including schools and hospitals, had the 

next highest employment with 291,480. The federal 

government had far fewer community and social service 

jobs, with a total of 16,980. Finally, three large industries 

had community and social services jobs in both the 

private and public sectors: elementary and secondary 

schools (employment of 199,170); general medical and 

surgical hospitals (95,910); and colleges, universities, and 

professional schools (57,680). For those jobs in community 

and social services, elementary and secondary schools 

had private employment of 20,410 (10 percent) and public 

employment of 178,750 (90 percent); general medical and 

surgical hospitals had private employment of 80,230 (84 

percent) and public employment of 15,670 (16 percent). 

(See table 1.)

Chart 3 lists the largest occupations in the community and 

social service group by ownership. Federal employment 

of social and human service assistants and educational, 

guidance, school, and vocational counselors accounted 

for less than 1 percent of the total employment for each 

occupation. The other occupations listed in chart 3 did 

not have any federal employment. Probation officers 

and correctional treatment specialists had the highest 

percentage of workers employed by state government, 

with 55 percent of the occupation’s total employment; 

this occupation also had the lowest percentage of private 

employment of those shown in chart 3, at 5 percent. The 

Chart 2

NOTE: Occupation titles followed by * have the same title but not necessarily the same content as 2010 SOC occupations.

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS | OCTOBER 2012 4 www.bls.gov

BEYOND THENUMBERS EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

Social and 

human service 

assistants

Child, family, 

and school social 

workers

Educational, 

guidance, 

school, and 

vocational 

counselors

Healthcare social 

workers

Mental health 

and substance 

abuse social 

workers

Mental health 

counselors

Rehabilitation 

counselors

Probation 

officers and 

correctional 

treatment 

specialists

Federal State Local Private

Employment for the largest community and social service occupations, by ownership, May 2011

Total employment by ownership

NOTE: Excludes residual ("all other") occupations.

SOURCE:U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Table 1

Chart 3

Community and social service occupations, private and public sectors and selected high employment 

industries, May 2011

Industry Type of ownership Employment

Total private employment Private 1,142,900

Local government Local government 439,040

State government State government 291,480

Individual and family services Private 282,360

Elementary and secondary schools Private, state, and local government 199,170

Residential mental retardation, mental health and substance abuse facilities Private 124,930

Outpatient care centers Private 116,880

General medical and surgical hospitals Private, state, and local government 95,910

Vocational rehabilitation services Private 81,960

Colleges, universities, and professional schools Private, state, and local government 57,680

Religious organizations Private 45,320

Community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services Private 44,370

Other residential care facilities Private 38,510

Social advocacy organizations Private 34,520

Psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals Private, state, and local government 32,400

Offices of other health practitioners Private 29,470

Home healthcare services Private 28,020

Nursing care facilities Private 26,560

Federal government Federal 16,980

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

NOTE: Excludes residual ("all other") occupations.

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS | OCTOBER 2012 5 www.bls.gov

BEYOND THENUMBERS EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

occupation with the highest local employment (141,603 

jobs) and percentage of total employment in local 

employment (58 percent) was educational, guidance, 

school, and vocational counselors. The occupation with 

the highest concentration in the private sector was 

mental health counselor, with 86 percent of all jobs in this 

occupation owned by the private sector. 

Location quotients

Map 1 shows the location quotients for the community 

and social service occupations by state. Location quotients 

are useful for analyzing occupational employment while 

controlling for the size of the state. They are useful for 

comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the 

average or for finding areas that have high concentrations 

of jobs in certain occupations. As measured here, a 

location quotient shows the occupation’s share of an area’s 

employment relative to the national average. For example, a 

location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts 

for twice the share of employment in the area than it does 

nationally, and a location quotient of 0.5 indicates the area’s 

share of employment in the occupation is half the national 

share. Generally, the more populous a state or metropolitan 

area is, the higher the employment of occupations in 

community and social services will be. For example, California 

had the highest employment of all occupations (14,038,950) 

and also had the highest employment of community and 

social service occupations (207,000). However, from the 

perspective of location quotients, California is ranked 25th 

out of the 50 states, with a location quotient of 1.0 for the 

community and social service occupations. 

Although it only had an employment of 7,510 in the 

community and social service group, Vermont had the 

Map 1

Location quotient of community and social service occupations, by state, May 2011

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Location quotient

 0.59 – 0.79

 0.81 – 0.92

 0.93 – 0.98

 1.00 – 1.06

 1.08 – 1.34

 1.37 – 1.75
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS | OCTOBER 2012 6 www.bls.gov

BEYOND THENUMBERS EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

highest overall location quotient (1.75). This was because 

multiple occupations in the state had high location 

quotients, including mental health and substance abuse 

social workers (3.52), social and human service assistants 

(2.62), mental health counselors (2.33). Other states 

with high location quotients were Rhode Island (1.51), 

Massachusetts (1.49), Connecticut (1.45), and Alaska (1.44). 

In contrast, Nevada had the lowest location quotient (0.59) 

for the community and social service group. Nevada had 

a few occupations with low location quotients, which 

contributed to the low overall quotient: marriage and family 

therapists (0.33), clergy (0.36), and substance abuse and 

behavioral disorder specialists (0.37). Some other states with 

low location quotients were Alabama (0.61), Texas (0.70), 

Indiana (0.72), and Tennessee (0.76). Table 2 has a list of all 

the occupations in community and social services and their 

respective highest and lowest state location quotients.

A few states have occupations listed in both the 

highest and lowest location quotient columns in table 

2. Massachusetts had the highest location quotient 

for healthcare social workers (3.02) and had the lowest 

location quotients for directors, religious activities and 

education (0.09), and probation officers and correctional 

treatment specialists (0.18). Hawaii had the highest 

location quotient for community and social services, all 

other (2.62), and had the lowest location quotients for 

mental health counselors (0.18), rehabilitation counselors 

(0.26), and probation officers and correctional treatment 

specialists (0.18). Even Vermont, the state with the highest 

overall location quotient for the occupational group, 

had an occupation that was below the national average: 

healthcare social workers (0.93). 

Map 2 shows the location quotients for every state for 

child, family, and school social workers. The states with 

the highest location quotients were Kentucky (2.05), 

Rhode Island (1.89), South Dakota (1.84), Hawaii (1.67), 

Iowa (1.60), Connecticut (1.58), Alaska (1.56), and West 

Virginia (1.56). Out of these states, Kentucky also had 

Table 2

Community and social service occupations, highest and lowest states by location quotients (LQ), May 2011

Occupation State with highest LQ High LQ State with lowest LQ Low LQ

Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors Pennsylvania 2.90 Nevada 0.37

Educational, guidance, school, and vocational counselors Louisiana and Missouri 1.43 Michigan 0.61

Marriage and family therapists New Jersey 5.64 Georgia 0.08

Mental health counselors Pennsylvania 3.11 Hawaii 0.18

Rehabilitation counselors Idaho 3.97 Hawaii 0.26

Counselors, all other Kansas 4.32 Missouri 0.09

Child, family, and school social workers Kentucky 2.05 New Hampshire 0.40

Healthcare social workers Massachusetts 3.02 Wyoming 0.53

Mental health and substance abuse social workers Vermont 3.52 Georgia 0.27

Social workers, all other New Mexico 3.33 Minnesota 0.26

Health educators Alaska 2.37 New Jersey 0.37

Probation officers and correctional treatment specialists New Mexico 2.30 Massachusetts and Hawaii 0.18

Social and human service assistants Vermont 2.62 Tennessee 0.33

Community and social service specialists, all other* Hawaii 2.62 Alabama 0.14

Clergy Oregon 7.38 New Hampshire 0.28

Directors, religious activities and education Oregon 7.34 Massachusetts 0.09

Religious workers, all other Oregon 5.52 Texas 0.16

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS | OCTOBER 2012 7 www.bls.gov

BEYOND THENUMBERS EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

Map 2

the highest employment (7,640). Annual wages vary 

greatly between states with high location quotients, 

from West Virginia, which had the lowest average annual 

wage of any state ($29,910), to Connecticut, which had 

the highest annual average wage of any state ($62,200).

Map 3 shows the highest and lowest location 

quotients for child, family, and school social workers 

in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Kentucky 

had the highest location quotient of any state for 

this occupation, and had high location quotients for 

many of its metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. 

Elizabethtown had the second-highest location quotient 

(4.26) out of all the metropolitan areas in Kentucky, with 

an average annual wage of $34,690, and employment of 

410 child, family, and school social workers. Owensboro 

had the fifth-highest location quotient (2.51), an 

average annual wage of $26,450, and an employment 

of 260. There are four nonmetropolitan areas in 

Kentucky and three of them appear in the top five of 

all nonmetropolitan areas having the highest location 

quotients for child, family, and school social workers in 

the United States. The East Kentucky nonmetropolitan 

area had the highest location quotient (4.02) out of any 

nonmetropolitan area in the country, with an average 

annual wage of $37,340 and employment of 1,010 child, 

family, and school social workers. The third-highest 

location quotient (2.66) for a nonmetropolitan area 

was in South Central Kentucky, which had an average 

annual wage of $37,070 and an employment of 950. 

Finally, the fifth-highest location quotient (2.56) for 

a nonmetropolitan area belonged to West Central 

Kentucky, which had an average annual wage of $38,110 

and an employment of 830.

Location quotient of child, family, and school social workers, by state, May 2011

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Location quotient

 0.40 – 0.61

 0.70 – 0.89

 0.90 – 1.05

 1.09 – 1.18

 1.19 – 1.49

 1.56 – 2.26
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS | OCTOBER 2012 8 www.bls.gov

BEYOND THENUMBERS EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

Map 3

Location quotient of child, family, and school social workers, by area, May 2011

Map 4

NOTE: Blank areas indicate data not available.

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Annual mean wage of child, family, and school social workers, by area, May 2011

NOTE: Blank areas indicate data not available.

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Annual mean wage

 $26,450 – 34,170

 $34,280 – 37,240

 $37,250 – 39,400

 $39,470 – 42,830

 $42,840 – 47,620

 $47,650 – 69,140

Location quotient

 0.22 – 0.59

 0.60 – 0.83

 0.84 – 1.03

 1.04 – 1.24

 1.25 – 1.55

 1.57 – 6.13
BEYOND THENUMBERS EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS | OCTOBER 2012 9 www.bls.gov

Map 4 shows the annual wages for child, family, and school 

social workers by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. 

Connecticut had some of the highest annual average 

wages in the community and social services occupations. 

With an employment of 430 community and social service 

workers and a high location quotient (1.54), Norwich-New 

London, CT-RI, had an annual average wage of $58,130, the 

lowest wage for this group out of the metropolitan areas 

in Connecticut, but still well above average. Waterbury, the 

metropolitan area with the highest location quotient (2.41) 

in Connecticut, had one of the highest average annual 

wages ($64,270) and employment of 330 for community 

and social service occupations. Hartford-West Hartford-East 

Hartford had the highest employment of any metropolitan 

area in Connecticut (2,370). The area had the 14th-highest 

location quotient (2.00) out of all U.S. metropolitan areas 

and an annual average wage of $61,980. The state of 

Connecticut has two nonmetropolitan areas, Eastern and 

Northwestern. The Eastern nonmetropolitan area had the 

second-highest annual average wage ($68,880) out of all 

U.S. nonmetropolitan areas, the fourth-highest location 

quotient (2.63) out of all nonmetropolitan areas, and an 

employment of 150 for community and social service 

occupations. The Northwestern nonmetropolitan area had 

the third-highest annual average wage ($65,510) out of all 

nonmetropolitan areas, the 21st-highest location quotient 

(1.84), and an employment of 140.

Wages

Generally, the wages of community and social services 

occupations followed the overall wage patterns for all 

occupations in an area, but wages for the group were also 

strongly influenced by the mix of occupations in each 

area. Higher levels of skill typically lead to higher wages. 

For example, social and human service assistants, who 

are usually required to have a high school diploma or 

equivalent to work in the field and typically receive shortterm on-the-job training, had a national annual average 

wage of $30,710. In contrast, educational, guidance, school 

and vocational counselors require a master’s degree for 

an entry-level job and had a national annual average 

wage of $56,540. Because the detailed occupations in this 

group have different skill levels, those areas with more 

employment in higher-skilled occupations had higher 

wages compared with areas with more employment in the 

lower-skilled occupations. 

This BEYOND THE NUMBERS article was prepared by 

John I. Jones, economist in the Occupational Employment 

Statistics program. For more information, please contact the 

OES program at www.bls.gov/oes/home.htm#contact. 

Occupational profiles for each occupation in the 

community and social service group are available at 

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm#21-0000.

Complete May 2011 OES data are available from the OES 

home page at www.bls.gov/oes.

Information in this article will be made available to 

sensory-impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 

(202) 691-5200. Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339. 

This article is in the public domain and may be reproduced 

without permission.

Suggested citation:

“Employment and Wages in Community and 

Social Service Occupations,” Beyond the Numbers: 

Employment and Unemployment, vol. 1, no. 

16 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, October 2012), 

http//www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-1/employmentand-wages-in-community-and-social-serviceoccupations.htm.

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