Babysitter
Key facts
Babysitters provide short-term care services to children on the premises of the employer, depending on the employer's needs. They organise play activities and entertain children with games and other cultural and educative activities according to their respective age, prepare meals, give them bathes, transport them from and to school and assist them with homework on a punctual basis.
As a babysitter, you provide short-term care for children in the employer's home, tailoring your activities to their age and needs. Your days might involve planning engaging games, preparing meals, assisting with homework, and ensuring the children's safety and well-being. You'll often be responsible for transporting children to and from school or activities, and providing a nurturing and stimulating environment while parents are away.
- • Organizing age-appropriate play activities and entertainment.
- • Preparing meals and snacks for children.
- • Assisting with homework and educational tasks.
Where this occupation is in demand
Reported labour shortages and surpluses, by year. Published for occupation groups, not for individual job titles.
Figures cover Personal care workers — 16 jobs including this one.
In shortage: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy and 2 more.
Longest-running shortage: Denmark, 4 years.
Where it is regulated, your qualification would need formal recognition before you could practise.
Select a place on the map to see its figures.
About this source›
Source: ELA/EURES labour shortages and surpluses. Readings are published at occupation-group level, and cover Europe. Editions differ in annex layout and country coverage, so a change between years does not always mean the labour market changed. Countries in grey were not reported, which is not the same as being in balance.
What these words mean
The four things this section reports
- Reported demand
- Whether employers report needing people in this job — a judgement published by a national or EU body, not a count.
- Where it is heading
- Which way employment in this job is expected to move over the coming years, from an official projection.
- Openings
- Roughly how many openings arise — from growth and from people leaving the job.
- Typical pay
- What people in this job typically earn where the source publishes it. Blank does not mean unpaid; it means nobody publishes it for that place.
A measure is left out when nobody publishes it for that place, rather than shown as zero.
Which way the market leans for you
- In your favour
- More openings than people looking — employers are competing for candidates.
- Balanced
- Openings and candidates are roughly matched.
- Competitive
- More people looking than openings — expect to compete.
- Mixed evidence
- Sources disagree, or the same occupation group is short in one part and oversupplied in another.
Every source resolves to one of these four, so there is a single vocabulary to learn. What differs is the evidence behind it, which is printed underneath each verdict — a measured ratio of openings to jobseekers, or an assessment published by a national body.
How this job compares with other jobs in the same country
- Strong
- Among the strongest in that country
- Good
- Stronger than most jobs in that country
- Mixed
- About typical for that country
- Weak
- Weaker than most jobs in that country
This is a rank within one country, not a score you can carry across borders — the registers behind two countries count different people, so the same number means different things in each. It is also why a job can be among the strongest in a country and still show as Competitive: it leads the field in a market that is crowded overall.
Where these come from
Every figure is published by a national statistics office, a public employment service or an EU body, and each card names its source and the period it covers. Some places are counted monthly, others assessed once or twice a year, so two places on the same map can be describing different moments — the date is always shown.
None of this predicts one person’s chances. It describes a market.
Reported demand · Typical pay · Where it is heading (United States, Ireland, Australia, Malta, United Kingdom)
| Reported demand | Typical pay | Where it is heading | |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Not reported | $34,980 2025-05 | −2.9% 2024–2034 · BLS 2024-2034 |
| Ireland | Not reported | — | +18.5% 2023–2035 · Cedefop 2026 * |
| Australia | Shortage reported Jobs and Skills Australia 2025 * | — | — |
| Malta | Shortage reported ELA/EURES 2024 * | — | +75% 2023–2035 · Cedefop 2026 * |
| United Kingdom | Not reported | £22,955 2025-provisional | — |
* Published for occupation groups, not for individual job titles.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS)
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Open Government Licence v3.0
Do you guide students, clients or employees? Use this occupation data in your organisation.
Future Outlook for babysitter
The outlook for babysitter is exceptionally stable. While AI tools will assist with daily tasks, the core of this role relies on human judgment, resulting in a high resilience score of 85%.
How are these scores calculated?
The Resilience Score (0–100) estimates how structurally protected this occupation is from automation and AI disruption, based on task-level analysis. Higher scores mean more human-judgment-intensive tasks. AI Exposure shows the estimated percentage of task hours that current AI capabilities could affect. These are model-derived structural indicators, not predictions about individual job security.
How could babysitter change as AI adoption grows?
Human judgement, trust, and context remain strong protectors for this role.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
Human judgement, trust, and context remain strong protectors for this role.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
Model-based estimate. Use it as a planning signal, not a guarantee.
Compare this to your profile
How AI may change this role
Deterministic, model-based interpretation of current role signals — not a guarantee of replacement.
What still depends on people
- assist children with homework
- prepare sandwiches
- play with children
Where AI may become a co-pilot
Limited AI co-pilot overlap right now.
Tasks most exposed to automation
No single task here is highly automatable yet.
Vital Signs & AI Vectors
AI Exposure Vectors
0-100%Exposure to physical automation, robotics, and sensor-driven task displacement
Exposure to content generation, creative augmentation, and large language model tools
Exposure to AI-assisted analysis, pattern recognition, and predictive modelling tasks
Exposure to workflow automation, decision-support software, and process digitisation
Technical Details
NexFuture v3.0 estimates automation exposure natively from ESCO essential-skill groups, weighted by skill mass and calibrated against expert anchors. Scores are probabilistic estimates, not guarantees. See the NexFuture Methodology White Paper for full details.
Measures automation exposure. It does not measure pay, demand, or how many jobs exist near you.
What people in this role usually do
Education
A typical day as a babysitter
09 09:00 · Morning prepare ready-made dishes
10 10:30 · Mid-morning prepare sandwiches
12 12:00 · Midday assist children with homework
14 14:00 · Afternoon attend to children's basic physical needs
15 15:30 · Late afternoon communicate with youth
17 17:00 · Wrap-up maintain relations with children's parents
Task order is illustrative. Individual days vary.
What you need to do this work
The skills, knowledge and tools this role calls for — and the traits and rewards that come with it.
-
assist children with homework
Help children with school tasks. Assist the child with the interpretation of the assignment and the solutions. Make sure the child studies for tests and exams.
-
play with children
Engage in activities for enjoyment, tailored to children of a certain age. Be creative and improvise to amuse children with activities such as tinkering, sports or board games.
-
attend to children's basic physical needs
Tend to children by feeding them, dressing them, and, if necessary, regularly changing their diapers in a sanitary manner.
-
supervise children
Keep the children under supervision for a certain period of time, ensuring their safety at all times.
-
prepare sandwiches
Make filled and open sandwiches, paninis and kebabs.
-
prepare ready-made dishes
Prepare snacks and sandwiches or heat up ready-made bar products if requested.
-
communicate with youth
Use verbal and non-verbal communication and communicate through writing, electronic means, or drawing. Adapt your communication to children and young people`s age, needs, characteristics, abilities, preferences, and culture.
-
maintain relations with children's parents
Inform children`s parents of the activities planned, program`s expectations and children`s individual progress.
babysitting
Temporarily taking care of a child for a small remuneration.
baby care
The procedures required to take care of children up to the age of 1, such as feeding, bathing, soothing, and diapering the baby.
disability care
The specific methods and practices used in providing care to people with physical, intellectual and learning disabilities.
- workplace sanitation
- common children's diseases
- pedagogy
Path to become a babysitter
What it typically takes to qualify: education level, where it is a regulated profession, and where to study.
Primary education
Regulated in 5 countries on record. Minimum EQF 4–6, depending on the country.
Reflects the EU regulated-professions database. Not legal advice — confirm requirements with the relevant national authority before relying on this for a career or immigration decision.
136 programmes in 14 countries teach the core skills of this job. Plus 209 short courses that build single skills.
A few examples, taught in the language of this page:
Child Development (HEALTH SERVICES VOCATIONAL SCHOOL)
Türkiye
These are 6 of 345.
Sources
- 1. Source: Opintopolku.fi (Finnish National Agency for Education)
- 2. Source: YÖK Atlas, Council of Higher Education (yokatlas.yok.gov.tr).
- 3. Source: Study in Korea, National Institute for International Education (NIIED) (studyinkorea.go.kr).
- 4. Source: Europass Qualification Dataset Register (European Commission)
- 5. Contains information from MySkillsFuture Course Run accessed on 2026-09-28 from data.gov.sg which is made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0 (https://data.gov.sg/open-data-licence)
Growth Pathways & Similar Roles
Explore typical career progression paths, adjacent skills, and similar roles to plan your next transition.
Where does babysitter fit?
Similarity scores based on skill overlap from ESCO data.
For organisations
The data on this page, working for your students, clients and staff.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of skills are important to be a successful babysitter?
Is this a job I can do while studying?
What does 'employment' mean in terms of work arrangement?
How much does Babysitter pay in the United States?
Is Babysitter a regulated profession?
Sources: ESCO O*NET ELA/EURES Cedefop BLS Data updated October 3, 2026 About our data