---
title: "Janitor and Cleaner, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners"
description: "Keep buildings in clean and orderly condition. Perform heavy cleaning duties, such as cleaning floors, shampooing rugs, washing walls and glass, and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/janitor-and-cleaner"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Janitor and Cleaner, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners

**Category:** Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance · **SOC code:** 37-2011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 37-2011.00

Keep buildings in clean and orderly condition. Perform heavy cleaning duties, such as cleaning floors, shampooing rugs, washing walls and glass, and removing rubbish. Duties may include tending furnace and boiler, performing routine maintenance activities, notifying management of need for repairs, and cleaning snow or debris from sidewalk.

Also advertised as: Building Custodian; Building Services Technician (Building Services Tech); Building Services Worker; Cleaner; Custodial Worker; Custodian; Facilities Worker; Heavy Duty Custodian.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $36,840 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.71/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,640 to $50,270, with the middle half between $32,240 and $44,060
- **Total US employment:** 2,209,760
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 351,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 58/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 2,209,760 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,640 |
| 25th | $32,240 |
| 50th (median) | $36,840 |
| 75th | $44,060 |
| 90th | $50,270 |
| Mean (average) | $38,760 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $45,580 | $43,099 | 55,490 |
| WA | $45,520 | $42,537 | 47,380 |
| NY | $41,640 | $38,584 | 195,250 |
| CA | $41,090 | $37,112 | 234,240 |
| VT | $40,910 | $41,763 | 5,130 |
| AK | $40,510 | $39,576 | 5,200 |
| MN | $39,610 | $40,164 | 42,300 |
| OR | $39,340 | $38,061 | 25,890 |
| NH | $39,150 | $37,585 | 9,420 |
| ME | $38,940 | $40,124 | 9,180 |
| CO | $38,600 | $37,457 | 34,220 |
| DC | $38,520 | $35,050 | 16,400 |
| NV | $38,420 | $38,428 | 32,830 |
| CT | $37,960 | $36,637 | 28,740 |
| IL | $37,810 | $37,826 | 93,760 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/janitor-and-cleaner/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/janitor-and-cleaner.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 2,447,700 in the 2024–2034 base year to 2,495,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 47,800 jobs, or +2.0%. Slower than average: 2.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 351,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** No formal educational credential (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 62.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 23.5% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 13.5% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 0.6% |

## What the work involves

- Notify managers concerning the need for major repairs or additions to building operating systems.
- Gather and empty trash.
- Service, clean, or supply restrooms.
- Clean building floors by sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, or vacuuming.
- Requisition supplies or equipment needed for cleaning and maintenance duties.
- Follow procedures for the use of chemical cleaners and power equipment to prevent damage to floors and fixtures.
- Move heavy furniture, equipment, or supplies, either manually or with hand trucks.
- Dust furniture, walls, machines, or equipment.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Trunk Strength — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.73 |
| C — Conventional | 4.61 |
| S — Social | 2.11 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.67 |
| I — Investigative | 1.15 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 85.4 |
| ISFJ | 79.0 |
| ESTJ | 76.5 |
| ISTP | 67.5 |
| ESFJ | 63.3 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Maid and Housekeeping Cleaner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maid-and-housekeeping-cleaner) — median $35,510
- [Cleaner of Vehicles and Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cleaner-of-vehicles-and-equipment) — median $35,830
- [Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/laundry-and-dry-cleaning-worker) — median $34,890
- [Septic Tank Servicer and Sewer Pipe Cleaner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/septic-tank-servicer-and-sewer-pipe-cleaner) — median $49,880
- [Dishwasher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dishwasher) — median $34,810
- [Recycling and Reclamation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recycling-and-reclamation-worker) — median $40,240
- [Maintenance and Repair Worker, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-and-repair-worker-general) — median $49,590
- [Floor Sander and Finisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/floor-sander-and-finisher) — median $50,440
- [Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cleaning-washing-and-metal-pickling-equipment-operator-and-tender) — median $43,530
- [Landscaping and Groundskeeping Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/landscaping-and-groundskeeping-worker) — median $39,150

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/janitor-and-cleaner