Preschool Teachers
(Except Special Education)

Minimal Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (4)

Lower estimated automation risk

Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education
6% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better
10.2 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Directly reuses early-childhood instruction, classroom routines, family communication, activity planning, safety, and assessment.

Special Education Teachers, Preschool
8% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better
8.6 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses early development, individualized support, family contact, classroom routines, safety, and observation with credentialing.

Teaching Assistants, Special Education
11% automation risk | Minimal Risk
More jobs
5 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Transfers child support, patience, individualized needs, behavior cues, classroom routines, safety, and teacher direction.

Recreation Workers
9% automation risk | Minimal Risk
7.2 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Reuses youth activities, group supervision, safety, play, engagement, schedules, and program routines.


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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
6.2/10
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

16% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

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.
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Education and training expertise

Very important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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Originality

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with novel ideas and creative solutions when there isn’t an obvious playbook to follow.
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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.
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Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Show 2 more strengths

Critical thinking

Quite important
Why this matters
Weigh options using logic and evidence, spot weaknesses in arguments, and choose the best approach when there isn’t a single clear answer.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 127 votes

21% 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 16% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education 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 Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education was $37,120 ($18 per hour).

The median annual wage for Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education was 25.0% 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

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education' job openings is expected to rise 4.1% 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 445,080 people employed as 'Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education' within the United States.

This represents around 0.29% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 346 people are employed as 'Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education'.

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What people are saying (5)

Leave a comment
MIRNA ELIZETH MUNOZ (Highly likely)
08 Jul 2025 23:52
As a preschool teacher I am committed where all children can thrive, including those special needs.
PreschoolTeacherintheMaking (No chance)
04 Dec 2019 03:59
Anyone who thinks preschool teachers can be replaced by robots is a fool
IHatePreSchoolTeachers (Highly likely)
24 Sep 2019 03:57
PRE SCHOOL TEACHERS SHOULD DEFINITELY BE REPLACED BY ROBOTS
Sarah (No chance)
25 Jun 2019 22:25
Preschool teachers are always creative with lesson planning and helping children. That job will not go away anytime soon.
FuturePreschoolTeacher
25 Apr 2019 17:49
This job will NEVER be automated! Nobody can ever replace teachers with robots! NEVER!

Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Instruct preschool-aged students, following curricula or lesson plans, in activities designed to promote social, physical, and intellectual growth.

O*NET-SOC code: 25-2011.00