Social Work Jobs in Houston, TX

Official local pay is solid but not outsized. For the broader community and social service family in Houston, BLS reported a $58,800 annual median wage, a $63,760 annual mean wage, a $47,550 25th percentile, and a $77,430 75th percentile for annual 2025; BLS also reported a $30.65 mean hourly wage for the broad occupational group in May 2025. Recent Houston posting data is directionally similar, with advertised pay centering on about $55k to $70k and a broader band of about $45k to $100k.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 386 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $53,595 at the 25th percentile, $75,112 at the median and $99,637 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of November 10, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

Showing 30 of 250+ openings.

Open all in AI Job Search

What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

Houston is still a viable market for social services and community-facing work, but it is not an easy one right now. The metro unemployment rate was 4.8% seasonally adjusted in August 2026 versus 4.2% nationally in September, while Houston education and health services employment was still up 1.2540% year over year and the metro had 31,050 workers in the broader community and social service family at annual 2025 levels. Statewide occupation signals are mixed: Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows Texas employment in this field up 0.9% year over year in September 2026, but active postings down 5.9% year over year. Most visible local openings cluster in healthcare-linked, on-site, mid-career work, so candidates who already look hospital-ready have the clearest edge.

Best positioned: The best odds right now go to candidates with hospital or hospice case-management experience, strong documentation and crisis-intervention skills, and an LMSW/LCSW profile.

Main caution: The biggest mistake is assuming Houston's demand is broadly spread across nonprofits; in the current sample, hiring is much more concentrated in healthcare and hospital-linked settings, and remote roles are scarce.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 884 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Houston: 72 open roles
2. PARS Therapy: 55 open roles
3. T2000: 50 open roles
4. Houston Methodist: 28 open roles
5. PAM Health: 26 open roles
6. HCA Houston Healthcare: 24 open roles
7. Action Behavior Centers: 22 open roles
8. MedCare Pediatric Group: 20 open roles
9. Astrocare Home Healthcare: 17 open roles
10. Collage Rehab: 16 open roles

Where the openings are

• Houston: 327
• Katy: 79
• Sugar Land: 38
• Webster: 37
• The Woodlands: 32
• Humble: 31
• Pasadena: 31
• Pearland: 26

Work arrangement

on-site 787 (91%), hybrid 57 (7%), remote 24 (3%)

Where the demand is

Real opportunity is concentrated first in healthcare. In the local posting sample, healthcare accounted for about 50% of activity and hospitals and health care another about 30%, with active employers including Heart to Heart Hospice, Houston Methodist, SSWR, incorporated, AOSW, and HCA Houston Healthcare. Houston's education and health services supersector employed 476.4 thousand people in August 2026 and was up 1.2540% year over year, which is the clearest local sector backdrop supporting this field. The second lane is county and community-service infrastructure. Local hiring signals also named Harris County, Memorial Hermann, MD Anderson, and DePelchin Children's Center, and Workforce Solutions used a September Community Connect Day to combine employment, training, health, and support services in one place. That suggests practical openings around care navigation, public service delivery, youth and family support, and community resource coordination. Traditional nonprofit outreach roles are still present, but they look less central than many candidates assume. Nonprofit organizations accounted for about 5% of sampled postings, while September local developments such as Houston Food Bank's 310,000-square-foot CORE expansion and Harris County's new community-safety funding proposals point to episodic hiring around program launches and grants rather than constant broad-based demand.

• Hospital and hospice case management (high): The strongest and most repeatable lane, driven by healthcare and hospital-linked employers and by demand for discharge planning, care coordination, and documentation-heavy work.
• County and publicly funded community services (moderate): A meaningful secondary lane tied to Harris County, Workforce Solutions activity, crisis-response expansion, and community-support programs.
• Traditional nonprofit outreach and program roles (limited): Still available, but a smaller share of visible demand and more exposed to grants, program cycles, and staffing volatility.

Where to focus: Prioritize hospital systems, hospice, and county-linked community programs first; treat general nonprofit outreach as a secondary search lane.

Roles worth searching next

• Patient navigator / care coordinator: It uses the same client-navigation, advocacy, and documentation strengths but sits closer to healthcare operations than to classic social-service titles.
• Behavioral health technician: A practical bridge for candidates who want behavioral-health exposure without immediately clearing every counseling or social-work credential screen.
• Utilization review or discharge-coordination specialist: Houston's strongest demand is hospital-linked, and these roles reward documentation, assessment, and interdisciplinary coordination.
• Patient advocate: This path keeps the client-facing mission while leaning more into navigation, service recovery, and cross-department coordination.

What postings ask for

• Case management (table_stakes | immediate): Case management is the single most common hard skill in the local sample, appearing in about 55% of postings. Who: Everyone in this category, especially entry-level and career-switching applicants.
• Crisis intervention (table_stakes | immediate): Crisis intervention appeared in about 30% of local postings and is also highlighted nationally as a core in-demand skill for social workers and counselors. Who: Candidates targeting hospitals, crisis-response programs, youth/family services, or behavioral-health-adjacent work.
• Documentation and EHR-ready note writing (table_stakes | immediate): Documentation showed up in about 20% of local postings, and national skill signals explicitly call out electronic health record documentation. Who: Especially important for hospital, hospice, and care-coordination applicants.
• Psychosocial assessment, care coordination, and discharge planning (differentiator | immediate): These are recurring local screening skills and map directly to the healthcare-heavy employer mix in Houston. Who: Best for mid-career applicants and career switchers trying to enter hospital-linked roles.
• Patient advocacy and interdisciplinary collaboration (differentiator | near-term): Both skills show up repeatedly in local postings and help separate candidates who can work across clinical, administrative, and family-facing teams. Who: Strong value for hospital, hospice, county, and complex social-service settings.
• LMSW / LCSW (premium | immediate): LCSW is the most commonly cited credential in local postings, with LMSW also appearing, which makes licensure a real screen-in advantage even though not every role requires it. Who: Mid-career social workers, hospital-focused applicants, and anyone losing traction in generalist searches.

Questions about this market

What do Social Services, Counseling & Community roles pay in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX?

Official local pay is solid but not outsized. For the broader community and social service family in Houston, BLS reported a $58,800 annual median wage, a $63,760 annual mean wage, a $47,550 25th percentile, and a $77,430 75th percentile for annual 2025; BLS also reported a $30.65 mean hourly wage for the broad occupational group in May 2025. Recent Houston posting data is directionally similar, with advertised pay centering on about $55k to $70k and a broader band of about $45k to $100k. This is a livable but not high-margin market: pay is moderate, and Houston's living costs were 6.3 percent below the national urban average, which helps those wages go a bit further than they would in pricier metros.

Where is demand for Social Services, Counseling & Community roles in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX concentrated?

Real opportunity is concentrated first in healthcare. In the local posting sample, healthcare accounted for about 50% of activity and hospitals and health care another about 30%, with active employers including Heart to Heart Hospice, Houston Methodist, SSWR, incorporated, AOSW, and HCA Houston Healthcare. Houston's education and health services supersector employed 476.4 thousand people in August 2026 and was up 1.2540% year over year, which is the clearest local sector backdrop supporting this field. The second lane is county and community-service infrastructure. Local hiring signals also named Harris County, Memorial Hermann, MD Anderson, and DePelchin Children's Center, and Workforce Solutions used a September Community Connect Day to combine employment, training, health, and support services in one place. That suggests practical openings around care navigation, public service delivery, youth and family support, and community resource coordination. Traditional nonprofit outreach roles are still present, but they look less central than many candidates assume. Nonprofit organizations accounted for about 5% of sampled postings, while September local developments such as Houston Food Bank's 310,000-square-foot CORE expansion and Harris County's new community-safety funding proposals point to episodic hiring around program launches and grants rather than constant broad-based demand.

Which employers are hiring the most Social Services, Counseling & Community talent in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX?

Recent postings show the most activity from Heart to Heart Hospice (15 postings), Houston Methodist (10 postings), SSWR, incorporated (10 postings), AOSW (10 postings), HCA Houston Healthcare (10 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Social Services, Counseling & Community roles in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 5% are remote and 15% hybrid, with 80% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

Browse Texas openings by job title

• General Manager: 551 open roles statewide
• Project Manager: 511 open roles statewide
• Branch Manager: 107 open roles statewide
• Senior Manager: 86 open roles statewide

Explore related openings

Social Services, Counseling & Community jobs in other metros

• Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO
• Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
• Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
• Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
• Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ
• Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
• Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
• Raleigh-Cary, NC

Other roles in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX

• Design, Creative & UX
• Healthcare Practitioners
• Finance & Accounting
• Hospitality, Food Service & Travel
• Manufacturing, Construction & Field Services
• Data, Analytics & AI
• Engineering & Scientific
• Education & Training

Browse all job openings | Browse jobs by title and state | Browse all job market reports