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Childcare Workers vs Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Childcare Workers and Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Childcare Workers Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$32,050
$37,120
Employment · BLS OEWS
520,180
445,080
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
54th pct
54th pct

At a glance

Dimension Childcare Workers Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
Median pay $32,050 $37,120
Employment 520,180 445,080
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-2.9%) About average (+4.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 160,200 65,500
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 54th pct Moderate · 54th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 31st pct · 19% of tasks 36th pct · 21% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (50.1%) Augmentation-leaning (45.6%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes Yes

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Customer and Personal Service, Problem Sensitivity, English Language, Monitoring, Service Orientation, Education and Training, Social Perceptiveness, Public Safety and Security, Active Listening, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Coordination, Written Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Far Vision, Speech Recognition, Psychology, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Active Learning, Learning Strategies, Instructing, Complex Problem Solving, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Expression, Fluency of Ideas, Inductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Category Flexibility, Selective Attention, Near Vision, Speech Clarity, Persuasion, Time Management, Originality, Flexibility of Closure.

Specific to Childcare Workers

  • Time Sharing
  • Administration and Management

Specific to Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education

  • Negotiation
  • Management of Personnel Resources

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Office suite software , Word processing software , Computer based training software , Project management software , Multi-media educational software , Desktop communications software .

Specific to Childcare Workers

Specific to Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Childcare Workers or Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Childcare Workers vs Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/childcare-workers-vs-preschool-teachers-except-special-education

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Childcare Workers vs Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/childcare-workers-vs-preschool-teachers-except-special-education

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-childcare-workers-vs-preschool-teachers-except-special-education,
  title  = {Childcare Workers vs Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/childcare-workers-vs-preschool-teachers-except-special-education}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.