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Child welfare caseworker job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected child welfare caseworker job growth rate is 9% from 2018-2028.
About 64,000 new jobs for child welfare caseworkers are projected over the next decade.
Child welfare caseworker salaries have increased 12% for child welfare caseworkers in the last 5 years.
There are over 7,275 child welfare caseworkers currently employed in the United States.
There are 21,687 active child welfare caseworker job openings in the US.
The average child welfare caseworker salary is $49,485.
| Year | # Of Jobs | % Of Population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7,275 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 7,020 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 7,011 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 6,849 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 6,554 | 0.00% |
| Year | Avg. Salary | Hourly Rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $49,485 | $23.79 | +2.2% |
| 2024 | $48,422 | $23.28 | +2.4% |
| 2023 | $47,278 | $22.73 | +4.3% |
| 2022 | $45,346 | $21.80 | +2.6% |
| 2021 | $44,192 | $21.25 | +2.1% |
| Rank | State | Population | # of Jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 462 | 8% |
| 2 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 386 | 6% |
| 3 | Alaska | 739,795 | 44 | 6% |
| 4 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 360 | 5% |
| 5 | Hawaii | 1,427,538 | 67 | 5% |
| 6 | Maine | 1,335,907 | 63 | 5% |
| 7 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 51 | 5% |
| 8 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 37 | 5% |
| 9 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 35 | 5% |
| 10 | Oklahoma | 3,930,864 | 155 | 4% |
| 11 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 123 | 4% |
| 12 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 85 | 4% |
| 13 | Idaho | 1,716,943 | 67 | 4% |
| 14 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 39 | 4% |
| 15 | Delaware | 961,939 | 34 | 4% |
| 16 | Vermont | 623,657 | 23 | 4% |
| 17 | New York | 19,849,399 | 526 | 3% |
| 18 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 172 | 3% |
| 19 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 109 | 3% |
| 20 | Kansas | 2,913,123 | 99 | 3% |
| Rank | City | # of Jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. Salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bangor | 1 | 3% | $40,012 |
| 2 | Lewiston | 1 | 3% | $42,532 |
| 3 | Los Angeles | 1 | 0% | $50,148 |
| 4 | Miami | 1 | 0% | $35,056 |
| 5 | Oakland | 1 | 0% | $59,152 |
Ohio State University
Ohio University
Baruch College of the City University of New York
Ramapo College of New Jersey
Ohio University
Colorado State University - Pueblo
College of Saint Scholastica
University of Alaska Anchorage
Metropolitan State University
Campbellsville University
Nebraska Christian College
Azusa Pacific University
Emily McCave PhD, MSW, LCSW: Most people find social work to be incredibly rewarding, knowing that you are a facilitator of positive change, whether be within an individual, organization, or at a larger community or societal level. For many, being able to help people reach their full capacity is fulfilling. The amount of documentation we must complete in clinical settings is often what is liked the least.
Emily McCave PhD, MSW, LCSW: For clinical positions, which is what most social workers do, daily tasks typically include conducting assessments and providing individual, family, and/or group therapy to children and/or adults, while collaborating with other providers working with the client. There is also daily clinical documentation that needs to be completed.
Ohio State University
Human Development, Family Studies, And Related Services
Deanna Wilkinson Ph.D.: The best way to maximize your salary potential is to do your homework. Start with self-awareness. What can and will you be able to contribute to the organization that will help the organization achieve their goals. Be able to “sell” your strengths, fit with the position, and areas for future growth. It is important to have realistic salary expectations while also sharpen your negotiation skills. Research to find out what are people in similar positions making in your community.
Deanna Wilkinson Ph.D.: My advice to HDFS graduates beginning their careers is to seek out opportunities that align with your passions and will allow you to utilize your academic knowledge and skills to help children and families in meaningful ways.
Deanna Wilkinson Ph.D.: In the next 3-5 years, technology, diversity and inclusion, and problem-solving skills will become more important in the field of HDFS. The helping professions will play an important role as technology continues to reshape human daily life and social interactions.
L. Justin Wheeler: There are often salary discrepancies between settings – for example, hospital and government settings tend to have higher salaries than private nonprofit, community behavioral health, or education settings. Even so, within the same agency there can be higher earning potential in different programs, depending on many factors including demand and program funding source and type. Knowing your local market and opportunities is important, as is locating salary data for social workers and related fields. Pursuing skill development through training, supervised practice, and consultation in areas of interest can improve marketability.
L. Justin Wheeler: Technology including telehealth, electronic medical records systems, AI, practice evaluation data collection, and other areas will continue to grow and require ethical and proficient users. There will always be a need for social workers to help shape policies and legislation based on human needs and human rights, so leadership, advocacy, and facilitation skills are important. And as loneliness and behavioral health needs expand, the core relationship-building and problem-solving skills social workers learn will be in high demand.
L. Justin Wheeler: One of the best ways to improve skills, continue to learn, and access support is to work as part of a team – take advantage of opportunities for group supervision, peer consultation, and interprofessional collaboration.
Timothy Aubry: I don’t think people should try to maximize their salary potential. I think graduates should find a salary they can live on and prioritize finding a fulfilling job. If their primary concern is money, they are seeing the job as a means to something else, and the money itself is just a means to some other kind of satisfaction. They’ll be unhappy at work and try to make up for it by buying things they probably won’t have any time to enjoy—justifying the miserable job they have. I’d suggest finding a job that is not just a means to an end, but that allows you to feel happy while you are working, fulfilled in what you are doing. In that kind of situation, as long as you can pay the bills, you won’t care as much whether you’re making more than your neighbors and your friends, since you won’t be measuring the value of your life by how much money you make.
Timothy Aubry: I can’t really predict which skills will be important in the next 3-5 years, but that’s exactly why a liberal arts degree is a good bet. The reason I say that is that the liberal arts teach you to be flexible and open-minded, to rethink your assumptions continuously, to read new situations, and to adjust your ideas in response to new evidence. In other words, studying the liberal arts will prepare you to navigate an ever-changing job landscape and adapt to whatever demands and requirements come to prevail in the future. Rather than tie yourself down to one particular field or skillset, why not develop your mind so you can be prepared for all variety of challenges and possibilities?
Timothy Aubry: Try to think about what kind of job would be fulfilling and would allow you to do meaningful work that helps other people and not just think about what job will make the most money. Once you’ve decided on a field, be tireless and relentless in your search. Keep sending out cover letters, keep following up, keep trying. Don’t take rejections personally. It’s a hard market, and you have to search exhaustively in order to find a job that will truly make you happy.
Dr. Timmesha Butler-Davis PhD, LCSW: Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of social work is its capacity for significant impact. Whether it's guiding someone through coping mechanisms in therapy or fostering empathy within marginalized communities, social workers play a pivotal role in effecting positive change. However, it's worth noting that the extensive documentation and writing required in this field are often perceived as less favorable aspects.
Dr. Timmesha Butler-Davis PhD, LCSW: One of the greatest strengths of social work lies in its versatility. Given the continual evolution of social norms and societal shifts, the field offers remarkable longevity. Despite being a relatively young profession, social work is in a constant state of growth and adaptation, inherently tied to the needs of the communities it serves.
Jennifer Shadik: Social work can be a challenging profession. We are often helping people who have experienced trauma or are going through extremely difficult situations. We are there to help them navigate these challenges, while building on their strengths and resources. Helping people through these challenging circumstances and seeing them grow and change is very rewarding. Building relationships with people, helping them learn new knowledge and skills, and advocating for social and economic justice are gratifying aspects of being a social worker.
Jennifer Shadik: There is a great need for trained social workers. Social work is a vast profession and you will find social workers practicing with children in schools, providing care for behavioral health or substance use disorders, as well as working in hospitals and hospice care. There are many jobs for trained and licensed social workers; the social work degree is very flexible, allowing social workers to work with a variety of populations and problems.
Jennifer Shadik: Social workers are involved in helping individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities in a variety of ways. Depending on the specific job, they may provide education, mediate conflict, connect individuals and families to resources, provide therapeutic intervention, and/or develop policies to help at an individual or national level.
Pamela Richmond Ph.D.: Challenges social workers can face are high caseloads, not enough resources to assist clients and exposure to horrific aspects of humanity. Social workers enjoy being a part of the change process by recognizing the strengths and resiliency of individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. Workers advocate for individuals that are marginalized and oppressed, ensuring they have a voice. They enjoy looking at solutions to problems and empowering others to make changes beneficial for their lives.
Pamela Richmond Ph.D.: Social workers are trained to understand and intervene on three levels—micro (individuals and families), mezzo (formal groups and organizations) and macro (community and the broader society). Given the challenges currently taking place nationally and internationally such as poverty, immigration, abortion controversy, societal racism/discrimination and the war in the middle east, social workers are trained to intervene and advocate for change on a variety of system levels.
Pamela Richmond Ph.D.: Social workers employed in a variety of diverse settings to include prisons, hospitals, child welfare, homeless shelters, nursing homes, substance abuse facilities, mental health facilities, community organizations and politics (and there are many, many more settings). The setting and the population of clients the social workers assist (children, youth, adults, etc.) will determine the specific day-to-day workload. However, general daily tasks completed regardless of the setting include interacting with clients/community constituents, responding to phone calls/e-mails, problem-solving, teamwork within the organization employed and/or with community constituents and documentation. Social workers entering the profession have fulfilled placement work during their educational training. Meaning, prior to graduation they have been placed in an agency working under the supervision of a social worker applying what they have learned in their coursework. As a result, when they begin their work as a social worker, they are ready to apply the knowledge, values and the skills they have learned to fulfill the tasks mentioned above.
Nancy Kelley PhD: The next 3-5 years may see some changes that will require certain skills to be even more important and prevalent in social work practice than ever before. One of the most pressing challenges social workers are currently facing is the extremely contentious political environment of the United States and the direct impact that has on equity and justice issues that have always been at the root of all social work efforts. The divisiveness that has been exacerbated in this country over the past several years has stifled social welfare policy efforts and has threatened social work education to effectively address longstanding and emerging social issues. Social workers will need to be especially adept at negotiating conflict embedded in divisive concepts and highly skilled to effect legislative change. This, combined with other unprecedented demographic and cultural changes, such as the aging of our population, increased cultural diversity and intersectionality within the U.S. population, and health and mental health crises, including illicit drug and addiction epidemics, make for extremely complex cases of vulnerable populations social workers serve. The level of knowledge and skill social workers must acquire and activate simultaneously, including trauma-informed approaches to be used cross-culturally, is immense. Another major need for advanced social work skills is with regard to the environment, including the effects of climate change on human conditions, and environmental justice. Some of these significant changes to the landscape of social work practice will force social workers to beef up their interprofessional and macro-practice skills. Lastly, I think the great unknown is related to technology--how to manage the digital ethics at the speed of technological advances will be essential to the field of social work.
Nancy Kelley PhD: Probably the first piece of advice I would give to graduates beginning their social work career is to keep an open mind-- one never knows what life might bring, so opportunities may arise that you weren't expecting. Every professional encounter provides an opportunity for experience and professional development that will inevitably advance one's career. Secondly, every professional experience, whether positive or negative, has take-aways and lessons learned so be prepared to find the silver lining in all you do. Third, don't give up; persistence and patience usually pays off in the long run when you are committed to a cause. Sometimes social workers undertake a lot of trial-and-error before successfully accomplishing our goals. Fourth, be sure to practice self-care; we cannot help other people if we do not care for ourselves first. We need to be able to 'practice what we preach,' so to speak, and give ourselves permission to prioritize self-care and seek support when needed. Lastly, remember that cultural competency is a life-long, career-long process. In order to expand our cultural competency, we need to continuously practice cultural humility when interfacing with diversity in all of its forms by embracing lifelong learning and self-reflection, mitigating power imbalances, and aspiring for institutional accountability.
Dr. Michele Sneed DSW, LGSW: Social work is known for its versatility. The day-to-day activities can greatly vary depending on the work setting. Certain core responsibilities can be identified among social workers across various contexts. These include things such as; conducting assessments, advocating for clients' rights and needs, offering support and counseling, engaging in community outreach efforts, and documentation, among other duties. Although tasks may differ, the fundamental aspects of social work underscore the profession's commitment to promoting well-being, social justice, and empowerment for individuals and communities.
Dr. Michele Sneed DSW, LGSW: The profession of social work is experiencing a remarkable surge in employment opportunities, with projections indicating above-average growth. This combined with the profession's flexibility, competitive wages, and sense of fulfillment makes social work a wonderful career path.
Dr. Michele Sneed DSW, LGSW: The concern frequently voiced by social workers is the documentation aspect of their work. While acknowledging its crucial role in accountability and transparency, social workers often find documentation to be time-consuming and tedious. This stems from the perception that excessive time spent on paperwork detracts from the meaningful interactions they could be having with the individuals and communities they serve.
University of Alaska Anchorage
Social Work
Matthew Cuellar: Understanding how to use AI, balancing ethics in a changing and increasingly diverse world, and incorporating fresh and new perspectives in to old and unchanged processes within rigid climates. Respect and understanding of all voices is and will continue to be key to effective social work practice, education, and scholarship.
Matthew Cuellar: Pave a road that involves work you love to do. Maximizing salary potential is not just about making more money. It is about striking the optimal life/work balance for compensation that a given individual finds acceptable to meet their unique needs.
Matthew Cuellar: Be familiar with licensure and/or other professional requirements and keep your long-term goal in focus. Network as much as possible, and be open to different perspectives and ideas that you might not be familiar with. Choose a path that involves working within your passion, and be proud to be a change agent for the people you represent.
Monica Bies: It can make sense to have a salary range in mind and do not hesitate to negotiate. Although it may feel uncomfortable, it is a regular and accepted practice. A new social worker might also ask about various roles and opportunities for growth and advancement within the agency.
Monica Bies: I can’t emphasize enough the importance of consistent and supportive supervision that allows one to continue to expand knowledge and skills.
Monica Bies: An ability to incorporate anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices and policies that advance equity in all settings in which we live and work.
Campbellsville University
Social Work
Dr. Kimberly Mudd-Fegett DSW, MSSW: The best thing about being a Social Worker is the ability to serve, assist and empower other individuals who are facing challenges within their life. Although this can be very overwhelming, at times the rewards this can provide, and self-fulfillment is hard to put into words. One of the greatest challenges of Social Work is maintaining adequate self-care and knowing that you can impact or help all individuals. This can be extremely challenging and overwhelming, particularly for new workers. One must ensure that they have adequate supervision, education, and resources to protect their wellbeing or burnout is highly likely.
Dr. J. Lendrum PhD: Trust yourself and follow your passions. It is possible to find a meaningful career that aligns with your core interests and values.
Cynthia Peters MSW: It is a good profession to enter now, due to the need for social workers in some of the jobs that I mentioned in the previous question. Social Workers can provide a different perspective on service delivery. Meeting the clients where they are at; developing relationships with the community; advocating for client services; writing grants; monitoring grants; brokering services......
Nebraska Christian College
Human Development, Family Studies, And Related Services
Christine Kiewra: The HDFS program is a flexible degree that offers the “human” element that is necessary but often missing from pre-health and pre-law tracks. The flexibility also allows for students to double major and broaden their learning outcomes.
Cindy Snell: Be able to articulate the skills and experience you have that are relevant to the jobs you are seeking - tell your story! Learn another language than English. Negotiate your hiring terms. Learn about loan forgiveness options.
Dr. Aimée Vadnais Psy.D, LMFT: Research the going rates in your industry and ask colleagues to have a good idea. Recognize your worth and advocate for yourself during pay discussions. Highlight unique skill sets that may be valuable to the agency. Provide free education nights to benefit the community, potentially leading to clients. Find a niche population you enjoy working with and market your services specifically to this area.
Andrew Schoolnik: Saying 'yes' to as many challenges and tasks as possible. The accumulation of these experiences will create new opportunities and the cumulation of myriad opportunities is central to career advancement. The 2021 revision to the Social Work Code of Ethics includes the importance of self-care, and saying 'yes' must be balanced with this.
Andrew Schoolnik: Dialogue and compromise. There are many apparatuses in today's society which are designed to pull people apart. Cable news and online news sites are famous examples of this. Add to this the echo chambers of social media where people largely associate with like-minded people while looking negatively at those with a different world view. This silo-ing of society is the antithesis of dialogue and compromise. Instead, it creates a class system of those who agree (the favored class) and those who disagree (the unfavored class).
On a macro level, the more the social worker dialogues with all stakeholders (those in favor and those opposed) the more that person gains knowledge and goodwill. This is at the heart of compromise - winning being defined as doing the most good for the most people.
On a clinical level, social workers work mutually with their clients. Learning about a client's values begins with dialogue (even when our values are different) and creating treatment plans is often-based on compromise (agency policy/goals, and client goals).
Alexis Henderson M.S., OTR/L, CLT, OCC: My advice to new graduates would be three-fold: First, take everything in stride. You cannot know what you do not know so do not feel embarrassed or incompetent if there is knowledge you are lacking. Most education in human service truly is acquired on the job. Never be afraid to ask questions and never let anyone make you feel inferior for needing to ask a question. Remember, you are working with human lives and therefore you would much rather ask the question and be safe than hurt someone. Second, work to separate work and personal life. It is so easy to come out of school and into the human profession field and want to fix everyone and everything. This is wonderful but also remember that your job is not your entire identity. There has to be some boundaries and separation, or burnout will be inevitable. Lastly, remember that your attitude dictates your experience. If you approach your work with kindness, gratitude, openness, and dedication it will take you so much farther in life. Challenging patients/clients are usually those who need help the most, so extend them a little extra kindness and grace. Your boss has a job to do, just like you, so ensure you stand up for what you need but also remember that them doing their job is not a personal attack.
Nicole Willis Ph.D., LMSW: Maximizing your salary first starts with doing the groundwork in the junior and senior year of the Social Work program. You'll want to have a strong and competitive professional resume that show how you stand-out from the other job seekers. The second phase is during the entry-level job interview phase. Best advice I ever received about salary is to NOT accept the first salary offered right away. Let your potential employer know that you'd like a day or two to think about the offer. During those two days, do your homework. Find out what is the average pay for like positions there and in other organizations. Talk with mentors you have within your professional network to get their thoughts on your offer. Don't be afraid to negotiate salary or negotiate the possibility that the potential employer would include paying for you to participate in a conference every year so you can earn the CEUs you need to maintain your Social Work license. In Social Work, we utilize great humility when working with clients and client systems. However, when in the office interviewing and considering that salary offer, put that humility aside for a while and think like a business person.