Career Explorer Community and social care
Changing shape
Probation officers and correctional treatment specialists
Provide social services to assist in rehabilitation of law offenders in custody or on probation or parole. Make recommendations for actions involving formulation of rehabilitation plan and treatment of offender, including conditional release and education and employment stipulations.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 48% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by +3.0% by 2035, slower than average. The work leans on emotional intelligence and ethical judgement.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $66,270
- Job growth to 2035
- +3.0%
- Openings a year
- 7,900
- People doing it (2025)
- 93,700
- Usual route in
- Bachelor's degree, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Advise others on legal or regulatory matters
- Assist others to access additional services or resources
- Present research or technical information
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Collect information about patients or clients
- Maintain operational records
- Interview people to obtain information
What the work looks like
- Prepare and maintain case folder for each assigned inmate or offender.
- Gather information about offenders' backgrounds by talking to offenders, their families and friends, and other people who have relevant information.
- Interview probationers and parolees regularly to evaluate their progress in accomplishing goals and maintaining the terms specified in their probation contracts and rehabilitation plans.
- Discuss with offenders how such issues as drug and alcohol abuse and anger management problems might have played roles in their criminal behavior.
- Supervise people on community-based sentences, such as electronically monitored home detention, and provide field supervision of probationers by conducting curfew checks or visits to home, work, or school.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Occupational health and safety specialistsHuman edge, growing, Index 93, +18.5%
- Physician assistantsHuman edge, growing, Index 97, +21.1%
- Nuclear medicine technologistsHuman edge, growing, Index 54, +4.4%
- AcupuncturistsHuman edge, growing, Index 85, +8.6%
Also known as: Correctional Counselor, Juvenile Probation Officer, Parole Officer (PO), Probation Officer, Adult Probation Officer, Deputy Probation Officer (DPO), Parole Agent, Probation Agent.
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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.