Jobs / Education and social services

Can agents do education and social services work?

Teaching, library work, counseling, and social services.

US jobs: 11,769,270 (7.6% of employment)
Typical wage: $60K a year (employment-weighted mean of occupation medians)
Occupations: 86 in O*NET 31.0
Evidence: 1 benchmarks from 1 institutions

Task level

Unexplored

No task-level benchmark in our collection tests teaching, counseling, or casework.

No benchmark covers this work yet.

Project level

Partial · thin evidence (fewer than 2 independent institutions)

Thin, adjacent evidence only. GDPval, which spans 44 occupations, is the one benchmark in our collection mapped here. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all GDPval occupations. No benchmark tests work with students or clients.

Evidence: GDPval — by OpenAI. Reading dated 23 Sep 2026.

Agents succeed on some scoped tasks. Reliable or end-to-end work is not shown.

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Benchmarks for this work

Also relevant

These benchmarks cover part of this family's work.

GDPvalby OpenAIProject level · Wins plus ties against experts
84.9%GPT-5.5 · Apr 2026
Strong

Functions: Professional deliverables

What we do not know

Benchmarks measure tasks, not whole jobs. A job is a bundle of tasks, judgment, and relationships.
Capability is not adoption. A task that agents can do in a benchmark may still be done by people at work.
Most results come from single runs. Reliability over many runs is often unknown.

Occupations in this family

Sorted by US employment (BLS OEWS May 2025). O*NET sub-occupations share the employment figure of their SOC group.

Occupation	SOC	US jobs
Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education	25-2021.00	1.4M
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education	25-2031.00	1.1M
Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education	25-2022.00	620K
Substitute Teachers, Short-Term	25-3031.00	525K
Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education	25-2011.00	479K
Social and Human Service Assistants	21-1093.00	438K
Child, Family, and School Social Workers	21-1021.00	393K
Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors	21-1012.00	353K
Self-Enrichment Teachers	25-3021.00	332K
Instructional Coordinators	25-9031.00	228K
Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1071.00	221K
Healthcare Social Workers	21-1022.00	188K
Tutors	25-3041.00	175K
Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary	25-9044.00	164K
Special Education Teachers, Secondary School	25-2058.00	164K
Postsecondary Teachers, All Other	25-1199.00	150K
Librarians and Media Collections Specialists	25-4022.00	134K
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers	21-1023.00	133K
Educational Instruction and Library Workers, All Other	25-9099.00	119K
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1194.00	114K
Teachers and Instructors, All Other	25-3099.00	114K
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School	25-2032.00	111K
Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education	25-2012.00	109K
Community and Social Service Specialists, All Other	21-1099.00	108K
Special Education Teachers, Middle School	25-2057.00	95K
Rehabilitation Counselors	21-1015.00	95K
Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1121.00	94K
Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists	21-1092.00	89K
Business Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1011.00	82K
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1072.00	78K
Library Technicians	25-4031.00	69K
Marriage and Family Therapists	21-1013.00	67K
Health Education Specialists	21-1091.00	66K
Social Workers, All Other	21-1029.00	63K
Community Health Workers	21-1094.00	62K
Education Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1081.00	61K
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1123.00	58K
Clergy	21-2011.00	57K
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1042.00	50K
Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1022.00	48K
Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1066.00	42K
Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1032.00	40K
Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors	25-3011.00	37K
Computer Science Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1021.00	35K
Adapted Physical Education Specialists	25-2059.01	(34K group)
Special Education Teachers, All Other	25-2059.00	34K
Special Education Teachers, Preschool	25-2051.00	30K
Communications Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1122.00	29K
Counselors, All Other	21-1019.00	29K
Directors, Religious Activities and Education	21-2021.00	22K
Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1126.00	20K
Law Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1112.00	20K
Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1052.00	20K
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1124.00	20K
History Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1125.00	19K
Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1065.00	17K
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Middle School	25-2023.00	17K
Social Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary, All Other	25-1069.00	17K
Religious Workers, All Other	21-2099.00	16K
Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1111.00	13K
Physics Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1054.00	13K
Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1193.00	13K
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1113.00	13K
Museum Technicians and Conservators	25-4013.00	12K
Curators	25-4012.00	12K
Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1067.00	12K
Economics Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1063.00	12K
Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1062.00	11K
Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1051.00	10K
Agricultural Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1041.00	9K
Farm and Home Management Educators	25-9021.00	8K
Archivists	25-4011.00	8K
Architecture Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1031.00	8K
Environmental Science Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1053.00	7K
Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1061.00	5K
Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1082.00	4K
Geography Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1064.00	3K
Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1192.00	3K
Forestry and Conservation Science Teachers, Postsecondary	25-1043.00	2K
Mental Health Counselors	21-1014.00	—
Special Education Teachers, Elementary School	25-2056.00	—
Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten	25-2055.00	—
Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors	21-1011.00	—
Teaching Assistants, All Other	25-9049.00	—
Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education	25-9042.00	—
Teaching Assistants, Special Education	25-9043.00	—

How to cite

Credit the original work first: the benchmarks listed on this page, and their institutions.

Then, if you used this page:

Can Agents Work. "Can agents do education and social services work?." https://canagentswork.com/jobs/education-social-services/ (accessed 2026-09-24). CC BY 4.0.

@misc{caw-jobs-education-social-services,
  title        = {{Can agents do education and social services work?}},
  author       = {{Can Agents Work}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://canagentswork.com/jobs/education-social-services/}},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-09-24. CC BY 4.0}
}