nanny
Key facts
Enjoy working with children and shaping young minds? Becoming a nanny offers a rewarding career providing attentive care and engaging activities within a family’s home. It’s a great option for those seeking a fulfilling role centered around childcare.
Nannies are employed to provide comprehensive care for children in the employer's home. This role involves much more than just supervision; it requires planning age-appropriate activities, ensuring children’s safety and well-being, and often assisting with educational needs. The work is dynamic and requires adaptability, patience, and a genuine love for children.
- • Organizing and leading play activities, games, and cultural or educational experiences tailored to the children’s ages.
- • Preparing nutritious meals and snacks, and assisting with bathing and dressing.
- • Transporting children to and from school, appointments, and activities.
Where this occupation is in demand
Reported labour shortages and surpluses, by year. Published for occupation groups, not for individual job titles.
Deeper colour: reported the same way in more consecutive years.
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.
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Could nanny fit you?
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Do you enjoy tasks that require Integrity?
Do you enjoy tasks that require Concern for Others?
Future Outlook for nanny
The outlook for nanny 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 84%.
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 nanny 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.
How could nanny 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.
How AI may change this role
Deterministic, model-based interpretation of current role signals — not a guarantee of replacement.
What still depends on people
- handle children's problems
- assist children with homework
- assist children in developing personal skills
Where AI may become a co-pilot
- handle chemical cleaning agents
- clean surfaces
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 nanny
09 09:00 · Morning assess the development of youth
10 10:30 · Mid-morning assist children with homework
12 12:00 · Midday assist children in developing personal skills
14 14:00 · Afternoon attend to children's basic physical needs
15 15:30 · Late afternoon communicate with youth
17 17:00 · Wrap-up clean surfaces
Task order is illustrative. Individual days vary.
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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.
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disability care
The specific methods and practices used in providing care to people with physical, intellectual and learning disabilities.
- common children's diseases
- workplace sanitation
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handle children's problems
Promote the prevention, early detection, and management of children`s problems, focusing on developmental delays and disorders, behavioural problems, functional disabilities, social stresses, mental disorders including depression, and anxiety disorders.
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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.
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assist children in developing personal skills
Encourage and facilitate the development of children's natural curiosity and social and language abilities through creative and social activities such as storytelling, imaginative play, songs, drawing, and games.
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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.
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support children's wellbeing
Provide an environment that supports and values children and helps them to manage their own feelings and relationships with others.
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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.
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assess the development of youth
Evaluate the different aspects of development needs of children and young people.
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support the positiveness of youths
Help children and young people to assess their social, emotional and identity needs and to develop a positive self image, enhance their self esteem and improve their self reliance.
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handle chemical cleaning agents
Ensure proper handling, storage, management and disposal of cleaning chemicals (CIP) in accordance with regulations.
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promote human rights
Promote and respect human rights and diversity in light of the physical, psychological, spiritual and social needs of autonomous individuals, taking into account their opinions, beliefs and values, and the international and national codes of ethics, as well as the ethical implications of healthcare provision, ensuring their right to privacy and honouring for the confidentiality of healthcare information.
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clean surfaces
Disinfect surfaces in accordance with sanitary standards.
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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.
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maintain relations with children's parents
Inform children`s parents of the activities planned, program`s expectations and children`s individual progress.
Skill DNA
Work personality traits and values that define this role
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Where does nanny fit?
Similarity scores based on skill overlap from ESCO data.
Frequently asked questions
- What skills are particularly important for a nanny?
- Beyond childcare experience, strong communication skills are essential for interacting with both children and parents. Creativity for planning activities, patience in handling challenging situations, and organizational skills for managing schedules and routines are also highly valued.
- Is this role typically full-time or part-time?
- Nanny positions can vary greatly. Many are full-time, requiring a significant time commitment, but part-time and occasional roles are also available, depending on the family’s needs.
- What kind of work environment can I expect as a nanny?
- You’ll primarily work within a private home, adapting to the family's routines and preferences. The environment can be quite varied, depending on the family's lifestyle and the children’s ages and interests.
- Nanny — is there a shortage in Europe?
- No. In the 2025 ELA/EURES edition, a surplus was reported in 10 of the 16 European countries that assessed this occupation group: Austria, Czechia, Greece, Spain and 6 more. 6 countries reported a shortage. These assessments are published per occupation group rather than per job title.
- Nanny — what does it pay in the United States?
- $32,050 a year at the median, as of 2025-05. State medians run from $22,020 to $47,340. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a United States figure and not a projection for Europe.
- Nanny — is it a regulated profession?
- It is listed as a regulated profession in 14 European countries: Belgium, Estonia, Romania, Finland and 10 more. The lowest qualification level required among them is EQF 3. Where a profession is regulated, a qualification earned elsewhere has to be formally recognised before you can practise. Source: EU Regulated Professions Database.