Teaching and community
What does a Social Worker do?
Helping people learn, cope and get back on their feet.
What the day is like
- Indoors, under a roof.
- A screen and a keyboard.
- People all day.
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- No two days alike.
The facts
- Pay
- $61,780 a year, median
- Social Workers, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Varies; see the handbook page
- Several years, and usually a formal qualification.
- Jobs
- +6% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing slowly
What is good about it
- No two days are the same, if that is what you want from a week.
What people find hard about it
- Caseloads beyond what is safe
- Decisions with no good option
- Court and paperwork
The distress is not occasional, it is the material of the job.
Will machines take this job?
Hard for machines to take over. Preparation and marking are automating. Presence, trust and pastoral responsibility are not.
How to find out whether it suits you
Shadow a team for a week and ask to see the caseload numbers.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.