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California training programs, and what happened to the people who took them

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Childcare Workers

SOC 39-9011 · 2024-2034

Attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions. Perform a variety of tasks, such as dressing, feeding, bathing, and overseeing play.

How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.

What California expects of this job

Typical pay in California
$41,034per year
Projected openings
135,490
Projected change
+1.5%
Usually needs
High school diploma or equivalent

Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Numerous Job Openings

The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.

Skills this work uses most

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.

  1. Monitoring
  2. Service Orientation
  3. Social Perceptiveness
  4. Speaking
  5. Active Listening
  6. Critical Thinking

Pay by region

RegionTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openings
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties)$46,6848,190
Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)$45,7208,500
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties)$44,8817,340
San Rafael MD (Marin County)$43,1261,380
Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County)$40,5821,580
North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties)$39,6561,150
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County)$39,15341,500
North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties)$39,142870
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County)$39,12312,120
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County)$39,05010,960
Vallejo MSA (Solano County)$39,0081,230
Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties)$38,998390
Napa MSA (Napa County)$38,978430
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County)$38,6791,830
Salinas MSA (Monterey County)$38,6071,290
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)$38,0739,920
Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County)$38,0421,370
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County)$37,918770
Visalia MSA (Tulare County)$37,373740
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties)$37,3225,230
Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County)$37,1981,230
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County)$37,0851,410
Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County)$37,054410
Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County)$37,0033,090
El Centro MSA (Imperial County)$36,993600
Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties)$36,653430
Redding MSA (Shasta County)$36,581580
Chico MSA (Butte County)$36,530750
Merced MSA (Merced County)$36,273550
Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County)$36,2731,220
Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties)$35,3572,880

What the pay actually ranges across

The lowest-paid tenth earn under
$36,235
A quarter earn under
$38,552
Half earn under
$41,034
Three quarters earn under
$47,493
The highest-paid tenth earn over
$54,004

A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.

Similar work

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.

OccupationTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openingsProjected change
Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education$48,72780,570+13.1%
Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education$84,8617,710-2.8%
Health Education Specialists$65,39116,320+10.2%
Special Education Teachers, Secondary School$103,8897,850-1.7%
Nursing Assistants$48,836172,680+10.3%
Special Education Teachers, Preschool$61,2171,7500%

Programs that train for this job — 27