---
title: "Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist"
description: "Provide social services to assist in rehabilitation of law offenders in custody or on probation or parole. Make recommendations for actions involving…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/probation-officer-and-correctional-treatment-specialist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist

**Category:** Community and Social Service · **SOC code:** 21-1092 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 21-1092.00

Provide social services to assist in rehabilitation of law offenders in custody or on probation or parole. Make recommendations for actions involving formulation of rehabilitation plan and treatment of offender, including conditional release and education and employment stipulations.

Also advertised as: Adult Probation Officer; Correctional Counselor; Deputy Probation Officer (DPO); Juvenile Probation Officer; Parole Agent; Parole Officer (PO); Probation Agent; Probation and Parole Officer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $66,270 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $31.86/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $46,840 to $107,790, with the middle half between $54,250 and $84,780
- **Total US employment:** 89,390
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 7,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 39/100 — 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 89,390 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $46,840 |
| 25th | $54,250 |
| 50th (median) | $66,270 |
| 75th | $84,780 |
| 90th | $107,790 |
| Mean (average) | $73,130 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $103,640 | $93,605 | 13,900 |
| CT | $97,350 | $93,958 | 1,200 |
| MA | $94,590 | $89,441 | 1,200 |
| OR | $84,920 | $82,159 | 1,260 |
| VT | $83,820 | $85,567 | 190 |
| WA | $82,750 | $77,327 | 2,150 |
| DE | $81,880 | $82,038 | 380 |
| MN | $81,580 | $82,721 | 2,040 |
| NY | $80,350 | $74,453 | 4,360 |
| NJ | $80,280 | $73,783 | 2,890 |
| MI | $79,760 | $82,896 | 2,190 |
| IA | $77,390 | $88,182 | 950 |
| AK | $77,000 | $75,225 | 480 |
| MD | $76,390 | $72,781 | 1,370 |
| NV | $75,840 | $75,856 | 780 |

31 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 46 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/probation-officer-and-correctional-treatment-specialist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/probation-officer-and-correctional-treatment-specialist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 93,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 96,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 2,800 jobs, or +3.0%. About as fast as average: 3.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 7,900 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:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-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 |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 88.0% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 5.3% |
| Master's Degree | 2.4% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 1.7% |
| Some College Courses | 1.7% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 0.9% |

## What the work involves

- Gather information about offenders' backgrounds by talking to offenders, their families and friends, and other people who have relevant information.
- Discuss with offenders how such issues as drug and alcohol abuse and anger management problems might have played roles in their criminal behavior.
- Develop liaisons and networks with other parole officers, community agencies, correctional institutions, psychiatric facilities, and aftercare agencies to plan for helping offenders with life adjustments.
- Write reports describing offenders' progress.
- Prepare and maintain case folder for each assigned inmate or offender.
- Arrange for medical, mental health, or substance abuse treatment services according to individual needs or court orders.
- Develop and prepare packets containing information about social service agencies, assistance organizations, and programs that might be useful for inmates or offenders.
- Administer drug and alcohol tests, including random drug screens of offenders, to verify compliance with substance abuse treatment programs.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.3 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 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Law and Government — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Therapy and Counseling — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sociology and Anthropology — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 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 Social (S), Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.56 |
| C — Conventional | 4.18 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.92 |
| I — Investigative | 3.44 |
| R — Realistic | 2.35 |
| A — Artistic | 2.15 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 80.7 |
| ENFJ | 71.3 |
| ISFJ | 66.4 |
| ESFP | 65.4 |
| ESTJ | 64.2 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Correctional Officer and Jailer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/correctional-officer-and-jailer) — median $58,940
- [School Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/school-social-worker) — median $59,550
- [First-Line Supervisor of Correctional Officers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-correctional-officers) — median $77,970
- [Rehabilitation Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rehabilitation-counselor) — median $46,850
- [Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mental-health-and-substance-abuse-social-worker) — median $60,280
- [Social and Human Service Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-and-human-service-assistant) — median $45,930
- [Police Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/police-officer) — median $76,210
- [Healthcare Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/healthcare-social-worker) — median $67,880
- [Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/substance-abuse-and-behavioral-disorder-counselor) — median $60,320
- [Mental Health Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mental-health-counselor) — median $60,320

## 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/probation-officer-and-correctional-treatment-specialist