Focused on making things better for other people, community and social service occupations include social workers, counselors, and religious workers. While they don’t make up a large portion of total employment in Southeast Minnesota, community and social service workers play an important role in the regional economy. The largest occupation within this occupational group is social and human service assistants, followed by mental health and substance abuse counselors, then child, family and school social workers.(Table 1.)
Median hourly wages for occupations within this group range from $14.85 for social and human service assistants to $35.88 for probation officers and correctional treatment specialists. In all, 13 of the 16 occupations have median wages over $20 an hour, seven have median wages above $25 per hour, and two have median hourly wages over $30.
Given that community and social service occupations are not a large employing occupational category, it makes sense that it also does not make up a significant portion of the current job openings. Currently, there are 796 job openings, making up 4.3 percent of the 18,505 total job vacancies in the region (the highest it’s ever been). Most of these job openings are for counselors, social workers, and other community and social service occupations. Mental health and substance abuse counselors have the largest number of job openings (599 openings).
Very few of the job vacancies have part-time hours. The highest percentage of part-time vacancies are for social and human service assistants – almost half of the openings are part-time. However, given that social and human service assistants account for only 51 of the total job openings, numerically this makes up a rather small number of part-time vacancies. Additionally, education, experience, and having a certificate/obtaining licensure appear to be critical for obtaining employment in these occupations, including 100 percent of the current job openings for mental health and substance abuse social workers requiring all three – post-secondary education, one or more years experience, and a certificate or license. (Table 2.)
This clearly demonstrates the importance of community and social service workers to the region’s residents – for those who are employed in these occupations as well as those that need services.
For more information, contact Mark Schultz at 507-205-6068.
