---
title: "Recreation Worker"
description: "Conduct recreation activities with groups in public, private, or volunteer agencies or recreation facilities. Organize and promote activities, such as…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreation-worker"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Recreation Worker

**Category:** Personal Care and Service · **SOC code:** 39-9032 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 39-9032.00

Conduct recreation activities with groups in public, private, or volunteer agencies or recreation facilities. Organize and promote activities, such as arts and crafts, sports, games, music, dramatics, social recreation, camping, and hobbies, taking into account the needs and interests of individual members.

Also advertised as: Activities Assistant; Activities Director; Activity Aide; Activity Assistant; Activity Coordinator; Activity Director; Recreation Assistant; Recreation Coordinator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $36,560 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.58/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $27,600 to $50,410, with the middle half between $31,780 and $43,470
- **Total US employment:** 331,490
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.1% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 68,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 52/100 — 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 331,490 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $27,600 |
| 25th | $31,780 |
| 50th (median) | $36,560 |
| 75th | $43,470 |
| 90th | $50,410 |
| Mean (average) | $38,520 |

### 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 | $46,460 | $42,274 | 470 |
| WA | $44,890 | $41,948 | 6,380 |
| SD | $42,270 | $47,716 | 650 |
| HI | $41,000 | $37,289 | 1,590 |
| CA | $39,780 | $35,928 | 48,560 |
| OR | $39,610 | $38,322 | 4,640 |
| CO | $38,820 | $37,670 | 6,100 |
| MA | $38,540 | $36,442 | 11,280 |
| NY | $38,040 | $35,248 | 24,790 |
| AK | $37,510 | $36,646 | 630 |
| MN | $37,510 | $38,034 | 7,940 |
| ME | $37,450 | $38,588 | 1,260 |
| VT | $37,450 | $38,231 | 840 |
| ND | $37,310 | $41,941 | 730 |
| MD | $37,200 | $35,442 | 4,350 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreation-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/recreation-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 327,700 in the 2024–2034 base year to 341,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 13,400 jobs, or +4.1%. Faster than average: 4.1% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 68,100 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:** High school diploma or equivalent (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:** 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 62.0% |
| High School Diploma | 25.5% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 8.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 3.2% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 0.7% |
| Some College Courses | 0.5% |

## What the work involves

- Assess the needs and interests of individuals and groups and plan activities accordingly, given the available equipment or facilities.
- Organize, lead, and promote interest in recreational activities, such as arts, crafts, sports, games, camping, and hobbies.
- Meet with staff to discuss rules, regulations, and work-related problems.
- Evaluate recreation areas, facilities, and services to determine if they are producing desired results.
- Enforce rules and regulations of recreational facilities to maintain discipline and ensure safety.
- Confer with management to discuss and resolve participant complaints.
- Greet new arrivals to activities, introducing them to other participants, explaining facility rules, and encouraging participation.
- Meet and collaborate with agency personnel, community organizations, and other professional personnel to plan balanced recreational programs for participants.

## 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
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 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.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.6 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), Enterprising (E), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 4.90 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.51 |
| R — Realistic | 3.75 |
| C — Conventional | 3.46 |
| A — Artistic | 3.05 |
| I — Investigative | 1.98 |

### 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 | 86.9 |
| ESFP | 80.1 |
| ENFJ | 74.5 |
| ESTJ | 64.2 |
| ISFJ | 62.2 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Recreational Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreational-therapist) — median $61,960
- [Social and Community Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-and-community-service-manager) — median $80,390
- [Entertainment and Recreation Manager, Except Gambling](https://nuecareer.com/careers/entertainment-and-recreation-manager) — median $79,520
- [Rehabilitation Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rehabilitation-counselor) — median $46,850
- [Instructional Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/instructional-coordinator) — median $77,440
- [Social and Human Service Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-and-human-service-assistant) — median $45,930
- [First-Line Supervisor of Personal Service Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-personal-service-workers) — median $48,590
- [Residential Advisor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/residential-advisor) — median $42,240
- [Fitness and Wellness Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fitness-and-wellness-coordinator) — median $69,770
- [Training and Development Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/training-and-development-manager) — median $133,000

## 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/recreation-worker