Licensed social workers identify those in need and work with them in a bid to solve their daily problems. They conduct research and refer clients to community resources when needed and help clients adjust to changes and challenges in their lives, such as illness, divorce, or unemployment. Licensed social workers earn an average salary of $57,000 annually or $27 per hour.
Licensed social workers create treatment plans and may also be contacted during crisis times to provide emotional support to the patient involved. They help the patients find the proper resources to get the care or supplement they need to sustain a certain quality of life while also serving as the link between people and caregivers in the health and psychology professions. Licensed social workers most commonly hold a bachelor's degree in social work from an accredited university.
After fieldwork, they require some hours of supervised fieldwork or an internship. Some employers prefer candidates with a bachelor's degree in a similar field such as psychology or sociology.
Licensed Social Worker Overview
Licensed Social Worker Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a licensed social worker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.85 an hour? That's $55,840 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 81,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Licensed Social Worker Do
There are certain skills that many licensed social workers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, emotional skills and interpersonal skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a licensed social worker, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.8% of licensed social workers included treatment plans, while 8.5% of resumes included lcsw, and 7.5% of resumes included substance abuse. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the licensed social worker job title. But what industry to start with? Most licensed social workers actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
How To Become a Licensed Social Worker
If you're interested in becoming a licensed social worker, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 27.2% of licensed social workers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 65.3% of licensed social workers have master's degrees. Even though most licensed social workers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a licensed social worker. When we researched the most common majors for a licensed social worker, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on licensed social worker resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a licensed social worker. In fact, many licensed social worker jobs require experience in a role such as social work internship. Meanwhile, many licensed social workers also have previous career experience in roles such as social worker or internship.
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Licensed Social Worker Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of clinical social worker you might progress to a role such as case manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director of social services.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Licensed Social Worker
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Meridian Serivces Licensed Social Worker-Medica Licensed Social Worker-Medica | Meridian Serivces Meridian Serivces | 01/26/2021 01/26/2021 | $48,60001/26/2021 $48,600 |
Jefferson Center for Mental Health Senior Services Therapist-Lcsw or Licensed Psychologist Senior Services Therapist-Lcsw or Licensed Psychologist | Jefferson Center for Mental Health Jefferson Center for Mental Health | 01/25/2021 01/25/2021 | $48,20001/25/2021 $48,200 |
Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services, Inc. Licensed Social Worker/Counselor Licensed Social Worker/Counselor | Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services, Inc. Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services, Inc. | 01/14/2021 01/14/2021 | $39,44901/14/2021 $39,449 |
New York State Civil Service Licensed Master Social Worker 2 (Chinese Language), South Beach Psychiatric Center, P21023 Licensed Master Social Worker 2 (Chinese Language), South Beach Psychiatric Center, P21023 | New York State Civil Service New York State Civil Service | 01/13/2021 01/13/2021 | $62,72601/13/2021 $62,726 |
Jefferson Center for Mental Health Senior Services Therapist-Lcsw or Licensed Psychologist Senior Services Therapist-Lcsw or Licensed Psychologist | Jefferson Center for Mental Health Jefferson Center for Mental Health | 12/29/2020 12/29/2020 | $48,20012/29/2020 $48,200 |
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Licensed Social Worker Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Licensed Social Worker. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Licensed Social Worker Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Licensed Social Worker resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Licensed Social Workers
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Public
5. Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA • Private
6. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
7. Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL • Public
8. Hunter College of the City University of New York
New York, NY • Public
9. Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH • Private
10. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
Top Skills For a Licensed Social Worker
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.8% of licensed social workers listed treatment plans on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and emotional skills are important as well.
- Treatment Plans, 10.8%
- Lcsw, 8.5%
- Substance Abuse, 7.5%
- Patient Care, 7.1%
- Facility, 6.5%
- Other Skills, 59.6% See All Licensed Social Worker Skills
Best States For a Licensed Social Worker
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a licensed social worker. The best states for people in this position are California, Alaska, Connecticut, and Nevada. Licensed social workers make the most in California with an average salary of $77,554. Whereas in Alaska and Connecticut, they would average $72,603 and $72,015, respectively. While licensed social workers would only make an average of $65,272 in Nevada, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$77,554
Avg. Salary
2. Alaska
$72,603
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$72,015
Avg. Salary
How Do Licensed Social Worker Rate Their Jobs?
2.0
What do you like the most about working as Licensed Social Worker?
Making a positive impact for my client that they wanted. Show MoreTop Licensed Social Worker Employers
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