350+ Social Services & Counseling Jobs in San Diego, CA

Observed government pay for the broad community and social service occupational family in San Diego sits well below the headline ranges seen in current postings. BLS annual 2025 data show a local median of $59,750, a mean of $68,560, a 25th-percentile wage of $48,530, a 75th-percentile wage of $79,210, and a 90th-percentile wage of $106,290. A separate BLS metro release put community and social service occupations at $30.49 per hour locally in May 2025 versus $32.96 nationally. By contrast, the current posting sample centers on about $90k to $120k, with a broader band of about $80k to $135k, which suggests the advertised-job mix is skewed toward higher-paying niches. Estimated subrole figures support that split: healthcare social workers were reported around $82,630 locally, mental health and substance abuse social workers around $75,570, and child, family, and school social workers around $59,770.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 338 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $72,800 at the 25th percentile, $103,256 at the median and $124,800 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of October 16, 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.

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What our analysts see this month

Balanced market | next 3-6 months

This is a real market, but not an easy one. San Diego's education and health services base was 285.8 thousand jobs in August 2026 and up 4.4591% year over year, which supports ongoing demand for community-facing and care-coordination work. At the same time, California-wide occupation signals show social services, counseling, and community employment up 1.4% year over year while active postings are down 4.0%, which points to demand that is still present but more selective than last year. The local posting mix also looks healthcare-heavy, mostly on-site, and tilted toward mid-career candidates rather than beginners.

Best positioned: The best odds right now belong to candidates who can show case management, crisis intervention, documentation, and assessment skills in healthcare, rehab, hospice, school-support, or substance-use settings, especially if they hold an LCSW or another clearly relevant graduate-level credential.

Main caution: The biggest trap is assuming the headline pay bands represent the whole field; many of the higher-paying advertised roles appear to be specialized, licensed, or hospital-linked rather than broad-entry community roles.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 386 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Collage Rehab: 21 open roles
2. Cabrillo Hospice: 14 open roles
3. AOSW: 12 open roles
4. SSWR, incorporated: 12 open roles
5. Rady Children's Hospital San Diego: 11 open roles
6. Sharp: 11 open roles
7. Family Health Centers Of San Diego, Inc.: 10 open roles
8. University of California San Diego: 10 open roles
9. Mission Healthcare: 9 open roles
10. Spine & Sport PT: 9 open roles

Where the openings are

• San Diego: 245
• Chula Vista: 28
• Encinitas: 20
• La Mesa: 18
• El Cajon: 17
• Poway: 14
• National City: 12
• Santee: 5

Work arrangement

on-site 316 (84%), hybrid 35 (9%), remote 26 (7%)

Where the demand is

Opportunity is concentrated far more in care systems than in generalist nonprofit work. The broad community and social service occupational group employed 35,750 people in the San Diego metro in annual 2025 data and made up 2.3% of metro employment versus 1.7% nationally. In the current posting mix, hospitals and health care account for about 45% of sampled roles, healthcare another about 40%, with much smaller shares in nonprofits, medical practices, and mental health care. Named employers in the active mix include AOSW, SSWR, incorporated, Family Health Centers Of San Diego, Inc., Collage Rehab, Sharp, San Ysidro Health, and Cabrillo Hospice. A second concentration area is school-, youth-, and recovery-linked support rather than standalone corporate-style counseling. SDCOE's restorative-justice training, K-12 Behavioral Health Resource Directory, and Thriving Communities Summit all point to active school-community coordination priorities. Alliance Healthcare Foundation also highlighted local youth-support approaches such as Credible Messenger mentoring, restorative practices, and expansion of the Common Elements Treatment Approach among providers. On the recovery side, the new National City SURTS center adds 73 residential treatment beds and 16 recuperative-care beds and is expected to serve about 670 people annually across those care models. Evidence is uneven across sub-roles, but the clearest volume signals are in child/family/school and healthcare-linked social work. Direct BLS data counted 3,260 child, family, and school social workers in the metro in May 2024, while later estimated May 2025 figures pointed to 1,440 healthcare social workers, 1,030 mental health and substance abuse social workers, and 3,820 child, family, and school social workers.

• Hospital and integrated care social work (high): This is the clearest opportunity cluster. Hospitals and health care plus healthcare make up about 85% of the sampled industry mix, and the named employer set includes Sharp, San Ysidro Health, Family Health Centers Of San Diego, Inc., Collage Rehab, and Cabrillo Hospice.
• Child, family, school, and youth support (moderate): This lane looks meaningful but uneven. BLS counted 3,260 child, family, and school social workers in the metro in May 2024, and September school-side signals included restorative-justice training and a behavioral-health resource directory for K-12 settings.
• Substance-use treatment and recovery support (high): The National City SURTS expansion creates a visible local demand signal around treatment, care coordination, and recovery support, with 89 total beds and expected annual service volume of about 670 people.
• General nonprofit program roles (limited): These exist, but they are a smaller slice of the visible market. Nonprofit organizations accounted for about 5% of the sampled posting mix.

Where to focus: Focus first on on-site roles inside health systems, community clinics, rehab, hospice, school-linked services, and substance-use recovery programs, then treat general nonprofit program searches as a secondary lane.

Roles worth searching next

• Behavioral health therapist or counselor: This is a neighboring path for candidates moving toward the more clinical side of behavioral health. Local expansion signals in recovery care are positive, and nationally substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselor employment is projected to grow 18% from 2025 to 2035.
• Patient navigator or care coordinator: This is a practical bridge because most visible local demand sits inside hospitals, health systems, clinics, rehab, and hospice settings, and integrated care coordination is a visible local theme.
• Program operations or nonprofit coordinator: School-community wellness work and youth-serving initiatives still need coordination, reporting, scheduling, and partner management even when direct-service roles are selective.
• Public health outreach or community engagement specialist: The local market is clearly emphasizing school wellness, youth behavioral health, resource directories, and cross-sector convening, all of which overlap with outreach and community engagement work.

What postings ask for

• LCSW (premium | immediate): It is the most common explicit certification in the local posting sample, which makes it a strong screening advantage for higher-paying or clinically adjacent roles. Who: Mid-career social workers already close to licensure or returning professionals with supervised hours.
• Case management (table_stakes | immediate): Case management shows up in about 55% of sampled postings, making it the clearest local baseline skill. Who: Everyone in this category, especially entry-level and career-switching candidates.
• Crisis intervention (differentiator | immediate): Crisis intervention appeared in about 30% of sampled postings and is especially relevant in hospital, school, recovery, and community-response settings. Who: Candidates targeting direct-service, youth, behavioral-health, or medically connected roles.
• Documentation and case-management software (table_stakes | immediate): Documentation appears in about 20% of local postings, and organizations are increasingly adopting modern case-management software to centralize client information and streamline workflow. Who: All candidates, especially switchers who need a credible operational story.
• Assessment and resource linkage (differentiator | immediate): Assessment, patient assessment, and resource linkage each show up in the local skills mix, signaling that employers want people who can move from need-identification to actual service connection. Who: Entry-level candidates who need to prove readiness for direct-service workflows.
• Telehealth and virtual service delivery (differentiator | near-term): Virtual service delivery remains an important 2026 skill trend even in a mostly on-site market, because care teams still expect comfort with remote client contact and self-service tools. Who: Mid-career candidates and switchers targeting mixed clinic, counseling-support, or outreach environments.

Questions about this market

What do Social Services, Counseling & Community roles pay in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA?

Observed government pay for the broad community and social service occupational family in San Diego sits well below the headline ranges seen in current postings. BLS annual 2025 data show a local median of $59,750, a mean of $68,560, a 25th-percentile wage of $48,530, a 75th-percentile wage of $79,210, and a 90th-percentile wage of $106,290. A separate BLS metro release put community and social service occupations at $30.49 per hour locally in May 2025 versus $32.96 nationally. By contrast, the current posting sample centers on about $90k to $120k, with a broader band of about $80k to $135k, which suggests the advertised-job mix is skewed toward higher-paying niches. Estimated subrole figures support that split: healthcare social workers were reported around $82,630 locally, mental health and substance abuse social workers around $75,570, and child, family, and school social workers around $59,770. This is not a uniformly high-pay market. The best money appears concentrated in healthcare-linked, licensed, or medically adjacent roles, while broader community and school/family work sits much closer to the general occupational median.

Where is demand for Social Services, Counseling & Community roles in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA concentrated?

Opportunity is concentrated far more in care systems than in generalist nonprofit work. The broad community and social service occupational group employed 35,750 people in the San Diego metro in annual 2025 data and made up 2.3% of metro employment versus 1.7% nationally. In the current posting mix, hospitals and health care account for about 45% of sampled roles, healthcare another about 40%, with much smaller shares in nonprofits, medical practices, and mental health care. Named employers in the active mix include AOSW, SSWR, incorporated, Family Health Centers Of San Diego, Inc., Collage Rehab, Sharp, San Ysidro Health, and Cabrillo Hospice. A second concentration area is school-, youth-, and recovery-linked support rather than standalone corporate-style counseling. SDCOE's restorative-justice training, K-12 Behavioral Health Resource Directory, and Thriving Communities Summit all point to active school-community coordination priorities. Alliance Healthcare Foundation also highlighted local youth-support approaches such as Credible Messenger mentoring, restorative practices, and expansion of the Common Elements Treatment Approach among providers. On the recovery side, the new National City SURTS center adds 73 residential treatment beds and 16 recuperative-care beds and is expected to serve about 670 people annually across those care models. Evidence is uneven across sub-roles, but the clearest volume signals are in child/family/school and healthcare-linked social work. Direct BLS data counted 3,260 child, family, and school social workers in the metro in May 2024, while later estimated May 2025 figures pointed to 1,440 healthcare social workers, 1,030 mental health and substance abuse social workers, and 3,820 child, family, and school social workers.

Which employers are hiring the most Social Services, Counseling & Community talent in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA?

Recent postings show the most activity from AOSW (10 postings), SSWR, incorporated (10 postings), Family Health Centers Of San Diego, Inc. (5 postings), Collage Rehab (5 postings), Sharp (5 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Social Services, Counseling & Community roles in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 5% are remote and 10% hybrid, with 85% 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.

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