---
title: "Lifeguard, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Worker"
description: "Monitor recreational areas, such as pools, beaches, or ski slopes, to provide assistance and protection to participants."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/lifeguard-ski-patrol-and-other-recreational-protective-service-worker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Lifeguard, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Worker

**Category:** Protective Service · **SOC code:** 33-9092 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 33-9092.00

Monitor recreational areas, such as pools, beaches, or ski slopes, to provide assistance and protection to participants.

Also advertised as: Beach Attendant; Beach Lifeguard; Lifeguard; Marine Safety Officer; Ocean Lifeguard; Ocean Lifeguard Specialist; Pool Attendant; Pool Lifeguard.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $33,580 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $16.14/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $25,780 to $43,970, with the middle half between $28,880 and $37,520
- **Total US employment:** 157,550
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 45,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 65/100 — 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 157,550 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $25,780 |
| 25th | $28,880 |
| 50th (median) | $33,580 |
| 75th | $37,520 |
| 90th | $43,970 |
| Mean (average) | $34,470 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $60,400 | $54,959 | 290 |
| HI | $52,630 | $47,867 | 720 |
| CA | $42,720 | $38,584 | 22,620 |
| WA | $37,770 | $35,295 | 4,720 |
| MT | $37,750 | $39,886 | 270 |
| MA | $36,650 | $34,655 | 2,640 |
| NY | $36,590 | $33,904 | 8,740 |
| VT | $36,030 | $36,781 | 310 |
| CT | $35,960 | $34,707 | 1,510 |
| RI | $35,770 | $34,973 | 370 |
| CO | $35,640 | $34,584 | 5,430 |
| AZ | $35,380 | $35,142 | 3,950 |
| FL | $35,040 | $33,883 | 9,460 |
| OR | $35,030 | $33,891 | 1,860 |
| NJ | $34,760 | $31,947 | 5,460 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/lifeguard-ski-patrol-and-other-recreational-protective-service-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/lifeguard-ski-patrol-and-other-recreational-protective-service-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 162,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 170,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 8,900 jobs, or +5.5%. Faster than average: 5.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 45,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** No formal educational credential (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 39.2% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 21.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 17.3% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 16.1% |
| Some College Courses | 5.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 1.2% |

## What the work involves

- Rescue distressed persons, using rescue techniques and equipment.
- Contact emergency medical personnel in case of serious injury.
- Patrol or monitor recreational areas, such as trails, slopes, or swimming areas, on foot, in vehicles, or from towers.
- Examine injured persons and administer first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, if necessary, using training and medical supplies and equipment.
- Instruct participants in skiing, swimming, or other recreational activities and provide safety precaution information.
- Warn recreational participants of inclement weather, unsafe areas, or illegal conduct.
- Inspect recreational facilities for cleanliness.
- Complete and maintain records of weather and beach conditions, emergency medical treatments performed, and other relevant incident information.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.5 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.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Far Vision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Selective Attention — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.3 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), Social (S), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.27 |
| S — Social | 4.24 |
| C — Conventional | 3.44 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.88 |
| I — Investigative | 2.37 |
| 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 75.4 |
| ISTJ | 73.4 |
| ESTJ | 71.4 |
| ESFJ | 67.1 |
| ESTP | 60.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ISTJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Firefighter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/firefighter) — median $59,280
- [Ambulance Driver and Attendant, Except Emergency Medical Technicians](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ambulance-driver-and-attendant) — median $35,450
- [Emergency Medical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medical-technician) — median $44,470
- [Recreation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreation-worker) — median $36,560
- [Security Guard](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-guard) — median $38,020
- [Occupational Health and Safety Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-health-and-safety-technician) — median $61,560
- [Forest Fire Inspector and Prevention Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forest-fire-inspector-and-prevention-specialist) — median $56,870
- [First-Line Supervisor of Firefighting and Prevention Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-firefighting-and-prevention-workers) — median $93,530
- [Occupational Health and Safety Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-health-and-safety-specialist) — median $90,150
- [Paramedic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paramedic) — median $60,600

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 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, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 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 31.0 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/lifeguard-ski-patrol-and-other-recreational-protective-service-worker