Human Services
Description OES Code:00009
Whether caring for a small child—or helping a grieving family face the death of a loved one—it takes a special person to work in human services. You have to be willing to make a connection, and take the emotional risks that come when getting invovlved with other people’s lives. In return you’ll get the statisfation of knowing your needed.

Some of the people you care for won’t be able to express their gratitude. Sometimes people that need help with human services workers can be difficult, so a generous portion of patience and understanding will help in this field. Human services workers range from aides (that provide basic help in a person’s home) to people at agencies who connect clients to resources that can improve their lives.

Categories Within This Industry
Individual and miscellaneous social services establishments provide counseling and welfare services including refugee, disaster, and temporary-relief services. Government offices distribute welfare aid, rent supplements, and food stamps. Some agencies provide adult daycare, home-delivered meals, and home health and personal care services.

Other services concentrate on children, such as big brother and sister organizations, youth centers, and adoption services. Workers in crisis centers may focus on individual, marriage, child, or family counseling. Also included are many different kinds of establishments, such as advocacy groups, antipoverty boards, community development groups, and health and welfare councils. Many miscellaneous social services organizations are concerned with community improvement and social change. They may solicit contributions, administer appropriations, and allocate funds among other agencies engaged in social welfare services.

Residential care facilities provide around-the-clock social and personal care to children, the elderly, and others who have limited ability to care for themselves. Workers care for residents of alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers, group homes, and halfway houses. Nursing and medical care, however, is not the main focus of establishments providing residential care, as it is in nursing or personal care facilities.

For a list of current job listings, browse CalJOBS or America's Job Bank.

Categories Within This Industry (Cont'd)
Job training and related services establishments train the unemployed, underemployed, disabled, and others with job market disadvantages. Vocational specialists and counselors work with clients to overcome deficient education, job skills, or experience. Often industrial psychologists or career counselors will assess the job skills of a client and, working with both the employer and the client, decide whether the client would be better served by taking additional job training, by being placed in a different job with his or her current skills, or by having the job restructured to accommodate any skill deficiency.

Childcare Services
This industry consists of establishments that provide paid care for infants, prekindergarten or preschool children, or older children in after-school programs. Formal childcare centers include nursery schools, preschool centers, Head Start centers, and group daycare centers. Self-employed workers in this industry often provide care from their home for a fee. Private household workers in this industry provide care for children in the child's home.