Career Explorer Healthcare support
Human edge, growing
Home health and personal care aides
Monitor the health status of an individual with disabilities or illness, and address their health-related needs, such as changing bandages, dressing wounds, or administering medication. Work is performed under the direction of offsite or intermittent onsite licensed nursing staff. Provide assistance with routine healthcare tasks or activities of daily living, such as feeding, bathing, toileting, or ambulation. May also help with tasks such as preparing meals, doing light housekeeping, and doing laundry depending on the patient's abilities.
Among the most resilient careers: more resilient than 99% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it moderate), and US jobs are projected to change by +18.1% by 2035, much faster than average. The work leans on emotional intelligence.
AI struggles with much of this work, and US employers are expected to hire more people into it than average.
- Median pay (2025)
- $35,800
- Job growth to 2035
- +18.1%
- Openings a year
- 760,000
- People doing it (2025)
- 4.7 million
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then short on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Prepare foods or beverages
- Counsel others about personal matters
- Teach life skills
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Assist individuals with special needs
- Administer basic health care or medical treatments
- Train others on health or medical topics
What the work looks like
- Plan, purchase, prepare, or serve meals to patients or other family members, according to prescribed diets.
- Care for patients by changing bed linens, washing and ironing laundry, cleaning, or assisting with their personal care.
- Bathe patients.
- Maintain records of patient care, condition, progress, or problems to report and discuss observations with supervisor or case manager.
- Provide patients with help moving in and out of beds, baths, wheelchairs, or automobiles and with dressing and grooming.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as growing demand for long-term care services primarily flows to home-and community-based settings rather than institutional settings, translating into a greater need for aides specifically.
Also known as: Caregiver, CHHA (Certified Home Health Aide), CMA (Certified Medical Aide), Home Care Aide, CNA (Certified Nurses Aide), Direct Care Professional, Home Health Provider, Hospice Aide.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.