Career Outlook: Fast Facts
Employment:
According to the latest statistics compiled by the U.S Labor Department Bureau of Labor and statistics
- Social workers held about 595,000 jobs in 2006.
- About 5 out of 10 jobs were in health care and social assistance industries and 3 out of 10 are employed by State and local government agencies.
- Although most social workers are employed in cities or suburbs, some work in rural areas.
Employment by type of social worker in 2006, follows:
Child, family, and school social workers............................. 282,000
Medical and public health social workers............................ 124,000
Mental health and substance abuse social workers..............122,000
Social workers, all other........................................................ 66,000
Job Outlook
- Employment for social workers is expected grow much faster than the average for all occupations through 2016.
- Job prospects are expected to be favorable, particularly for social work
Source: http://www.bls.gov/oco/pdf/ocos060.pdf
And http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos060.htm
There are several reasons as to why the field of social work, at least in health care, continue to grow:
- the aging population of "baby boomers"
- advanced medical treatment
- longer life expectancy
- growth of home health care due to growing trend of early release of patients from hospitals
- replacement of workers seeking career change
- stress and burnout among social workers causing them to leave profession
- increase in population of people living with AIDS
Source: http://usnews.healthline.com/galecontent/social-work-in-health-care/2
Benchmarks on licensed social workers (2004)
Social Work Practice
A 2004 survey by the Center for Health Workforce Studies & NASW Center for Workforce Studies published in 2006 and posted on http://workforce.socialworkers.org/studies/fullStudy0806.pdf reveals that
- Licensed social workers perform a wide range of roles and tasks in a wide range of organizations and settings. However, there was general consistency in the roles performed across all sectors, settings, and practice areas.
- The employment sector in which licensed social workers work varies age cohorts. Older social workers are more likely to work as private practitioners, suggesting a possible career shift pattern.
- Mental health was the largest practice area (specialty) for active licensed social workers in 2004, representing nearly 37% of all practitioners. Child Welfare/Family (13%), Health (13%), and Aging (9%) were next on the list.
Salaries
- Licensure is related to higher wages/salaries for social workers. Wage/salary data from survey respondents also indicated that earning advanced social work degrees results in significantly higher wages/salaries.
- Responses revealed a gender gap in salaries for licensed social workers in 2004. The raw difference in average salaries for men and women working fulltime in a single social work job was $12,045, with 389 men reporting an average annual salary of $61,040 and 1,744 women reporting $48,995. After controlling for a number of other factors (age, race, geographic area, highest social work degree, years of experience, rural/urban setting, license required, size of caseload, vacancy patterns, practice area, and employment sector), the average salary gap dropped to approximately $7,052. Since the mean salary for these individuals was about $51,192, the percentage gap was about 14%.
Denise Chiasson-Breaux, MSW, LCSW,
Asistant Dean, LSU, 1995
