Nursing Assistants

Low pay & lowrisk
Low Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.7/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

32% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
Jobs that also use this strength

Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Education and training expertise

Quite important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 97 votes

40% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 32% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Nursing Assistants will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Nursing Assistants was $39,530 ($19 per hour).

The median annual wage for Nursing Assistants was 20.1% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Nursing Assistants' job openings is expected to rise 2.3% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 1,388,430 people employed as 'Nursing Assistants' within the United States.

This represents around 0.9% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 111 people are employed as 'Nursing Assistants'.

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What people are saying (6)

Leave a comment
victor (Highly likely)
12 Jul 2025 01:06
Some activities will be replaced by work dynamics, for example, changing the diapers of an adult patient.
Christa
01 Jun 2025 05:16
At the current rate of AI models trending upwards in intelligence and continuing towards self sufficient and expert level decision making, it's very plausible that this will become another profession that could be replaced by AI robotics through AGI, or artificial general intelligence.
Kiri-Gyuris Krisztina (Uncertain)
04 Mar 2025 22:43
Sensitive area. Much depends on people's attitudes.
Matias (No chance)
05 Jun 2024 21:49
It is often believed that nursing assistants are limited to caring for elderly patients, but that is only one area of the many jobs they perform. They are constantly physically interacting with patients, performing minor or even major routine procedures under the supervision of a nurse. it is impossible to imagine that a robot could replace them considering that, one of the most common tasks they perform is drawing blood or cleaning wounds, and this carries a massive biohazard if not handled correctly.
A robot doing this single task would need, at least to comply with legal regulations on sanitation, to have a self-cleaning system that works at least three times per procedure, a contamination area suitable for the robot where it can expel the waste, a technician to supervise that the hygiene process has been correctly executed, sterilization supplies applied by a third party or by a second mechanism to prevent contamination of blood or biological secretions in new procedures.
And the biggest problem is that if the robot were to fail to perform its hygiene process and contaminate another patient, the lawsuits would be catastrophic for a task that could be performed by a human in less time and for a low wage.

I believe that it would cost the wage of four nursing assistants to cover the maintenances and pay technicians for a single robot.
Kate (No chance)
27 May 2024 05:52
Nursing assistants need to interact with people in a very physical way which constantly adapts and is never the same. Replacing NAs will require the development and deployment of highly agile soft robotics that are able to safely and comfortably handle human beings while considering medical factors that are not easily measured.
S (No chance)
06 Sep 2023 16:57
Robots have no emotions so how could they care for patients?
Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Provide or assist with basic care or support under the direction of onsite licensed nursing staff. Perform duties such as monitoring of health status, feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, or ambulation of patients in a health or nursing facility. May include medication administration and other health-related tasks. Includes nursing care attendants, nursing aides, and nursing attendants.

O*NET-SOC code: 31-1131.00