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STRATUSWORKFORCE SCAN
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Industry group, 6241

Individual and Family Services

3,456,820 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $43,400 a year (BLS, May 2025). What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.

now
17%

of the paid hours. Estimate.

$39B

a year: 1.2 billion hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.

Kinds of work
  • 23%
  • 30%
  • 47%
3%

of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 14% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.

Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.

Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 23% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 2030

What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .

How far this has come

With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this industry's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 15%. Today's estimate: 17%.

0%5%10%15%20%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 0% within reacho1, December 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 1% within reacho3, April 2025: 4% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 5% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 8% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 8% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 9% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 10% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 15% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 17% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.

Where the hours are

Jobs by hours within reach now. The 40 largest jobs hold 93% of the people.

PeoplePay here
Personal Care Aides1,156,19010%231 million$35K
Home Health Aides1,156,1907%176 million$35K
Social and Human Service Assistants128,54044%117 million$46K
Child, Family, and School Social Workers90,23035%66 million$50K
Mental Health Counselors40,26565%54 million$58K
Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors40,26546%38 million$58K
Office Clerks, General31,93054%36 million$41K
Social and Community Service Managers60,19024%30 million$77K
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive29,37043%26 million$44K
Rehabilitation Counselors15,65066%22 million$45K
Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks12,89078%21 million$49K
Marriage and Family Therapists17,33057%21 million$61K

People: BLS counts for this industry, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this industry, else its mean, else the national median. 236 smaller jobs (223,000 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 98% of the industry's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.

The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028

Across the whole industry, on the chosen pace and reliability.

  1. Maintain records of patient care, condition, progress, or problems to report and discuss observations with supervisor or case manager.Home Health Aides
    96 million hours70% of the task within reach
  2. Provide clients with communication assistance, typing their correspondence or obtaining information for them.Personal Care Aides
    89 million hours70% of the task within reach
  3. Prepare and maintain records of client progress and services performed, reporting changes in client condition to manager or supervisor.Personal Care Aides
    82 million hours70% of the task within reach
  4. Plan, purchase, prepare, or serve meals to patients or other family members, according to prescribed diets.Home Health Aides
    80 million hours20% of the task within reach
  5. Participate in case reviews, consulting with the team caring for the client, to evaluate the client's needs and plan for continuing services.Personal Care Aides
    33 million hours20% of the task within reach
  6. Assess clients' cognitive abilities and physical and emotional needs to determine appropriate interventions.Social and Human Service Assistants
    32 million hours100% of the task within reach
  7. Assist in locating housing for displaced individuals.Social and Human Service Assistants
    28 million hours100% of the task within reach
  8. Plan, shop for, or prepare nutritious meals or assist families in planning, shopping for, or preparing nutritious meals.Personal Care Aides
    28 million hours20% of the task within reach
  9. Establish and oversee administrative procedures to meet objectives set by boards of directors or senior management.Social and Community Service Managers
    26 million hours100% of the task within reach
  10. Maintain case history records and prepare reports.Child, Family, and School Social Workers
    24 million hours100% of the task within reach

Scan a typical company in this industry

The industry's largest jobs, in the proportions BLS counts across the whole industry, at the pay it pays, run through the company scan. A starting point before you have a roster, or a benchmark for the one you have.

Next to this industry

Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.

How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this industry; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the industry's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works