# Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists

US SOC code 21-1092. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/21-1092

Also called: Probation officer, Parole officer, Correctional treatment specialist, Community supervision officer, Adult probation officer.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **89,390** US probation officers and correctional treatment specialists, with median pay of **$66,270** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2003, the highest was **97,130**, in May 2008. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://www.nywp.uscourts.gov/history-united-states-probation-office) of **62** from 1931, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era in this work: Web-based case management systems, 2010 to 2022. Platform adoption is estimated to have reduced administrative time per case, with self-reporting kiosk systems (AutoMon and similar) handling routine compliance checks for low-risk offenders entirely.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=21-1092&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **44.7%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend. In May 2021 BLS changed how it estimates these counts (a model-based method using three years of survey data) and moved fully to the 2018 occupation codes, so part of a change across 2021 can come from the method rather than the work.

## Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1841
- Latest US employment: 89,390 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [5]
- Latest US median pay: $66,270 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [10]
- Outlook: +3% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [25]

### In other countries

The latest figure each country's statistics agency publishes for this job. Each uses its own occupation definition, survey basis and currency, so the numbers are not directly comparable with each other or with the US figures.

- **Canada** (NOC 41311)
  - Employment, 2020: 5,280. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [8]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021: number of persons with employment income in NOC 41311 Probation and parole officers, Canada, reference year 2020. A recipients basis (anyone with employment income during the year), slightly broader than a point-in-time employed count. Statistics Canada Open Licence.
  - Median pay, 2020: C$83,000. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [13]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021 (Table 98-10-0586): median employment income for NOC 41311 Probation and parole officers, Canada, reference year 2020, full-year full-time workers (the basis comparable to the US OEWS full-time median). Statistics Canada Open Licence.

### All 28 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1927 | n/a | $2,400 (estimate) | Est., History of the United States Probation… [9] |
| 1931 | 62 (estimate) | n/a | Est., History of the United States Probation… [1] |
| 1951 | 12,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., Probation and Pretrial Services History [2] |
| 1976 | 35,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., Bureau of Justice Statistics [3] |
| 2000 | 84,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook [4] |
| 2003 | 86,810 | $38,780 | BLS OEWS May 2003 [5] |
| 2004 | 89,170 | $39,600 | BLS OEWS May 2004 [5] |
| 2005 | 90,600 | $40,210 | BLS OEWS May 2005 [5] |
| 2006 | 89,650 | $42,500 | BLS OEWS May 2006 [5] |
| 2007 | 94,120 | $44,510 | BLS OEWS May 2007 [5] |
| 2008 | 97,130 | $45,910 | BLS OEWS May 2008 [5] |
| 2009 | 92,910 | $46,530 | BLS OEWS May 2009 [5] |
| 2010 | 89,900 | $47,200 | BLS OEWS May 2010 [5] |
| 2011 | 88,520 | $47,840 | BLS OEWS May 2011 [5] |
| 2012 | 86,780 | $48,190 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [5] |
| 2013 | 86,810 | $48,440 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [5] |
| 2014 | 86,810 | $49,060 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [5] |
| 2015 | 87,950 | $49,360 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [5] |
| 2016 | 87,500 | $50,160 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [5] |
| 2017 | 87,700 | $51,410 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [5] |
| 2018 | 87,660 | $53,020 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [5] |
| 2019 | 88,120 | $54,290 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [5] |
| 2020 | 90,070 | $55,690 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [5] |
| 2021 | 92,140 | $60,250 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [5] |
| 2022 | 89,920 | $59,860 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [5] |
| 2023 | 85,870 | $61,800 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [5] |
| 2024 | 86,820 | $64,520 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [5] |
| 2025 | 89,390 | $66,270 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [5] |

## Sources (87)

### Employment series

1. [History of the United States Probation Office (Western District of New York) — federal probation officer count, June 1931](https://www.nywp.uscourts.gov/history-united-states-probation-office), United States District Court, Western District of New York
2. [Probation and Pretrial Services History — U.S. Courts (universal state adoption by 1951)](https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/probation-and-pretrial-services/probation-and-pretrial-services-history), United States Courts
3. [Bureau of Justice Statistics — Probation and Parole in the United States (BJS annual series; 1976 probation population 923,000)](https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/annual-probation-survey-and-annual-parole-survey), Bureau of Justice Statistics
4. [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists (2000 SOC introduction; ~84,000 employed)](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/probation-officers-and-correctional-treatment-specialists.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics
5. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
6. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
7. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
8. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada

### Wage series

9. [History of the United States Probation Office (Western District of New York): entry-level federal probation officer salary $2,400/year, advancing to $3,000 after six months (first cohort appointed 1926-1927)](https://www.nywp.uscourts.gov/history-united-states-probation-office), United States District Court, Western District of New York
10. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
11. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
12. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
13. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada

### Tool eras

14. [Probation and Pretrial Services History — U.S. Courts (1943 presentence investigation monograph)](https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/probation-and-pretrial-services/probation-and-pretrial-services-history), United States Courts
15. [San Mateo County Probation — History of Probation (early case management practices)](https://www.smcgov.org/probation/history-probation), San Mateo County Probation Department
16. [Statewide Ankle Monitoring — The History of House Arrest Bracelets (first court use, April 1983, Judge Love)](https://www.statewideanklemonitoring.com/blog/house-arrest-bracelet/the-history-of-house-arrest-bracelets-and-more/), Statewide Ankle Monitoring
17. [Electronic tagging — Wikipedia (history of electronic monitoring in criminal justice)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_tagging), Wikipedia
18. [COMPAS (software) — Wikipedia (development by Northpointe in 1998; ProPublica 2016 investigation)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMPAS_%28software%29), Wikipedia
19. [equivant Supervision — Risk Needs Assessments (COMPAS-R as of 2023)](https://equivant-supervision.com/solutions/risk-needs-assessments/), equivant Supervision
20. [NIJ — GPS Monitoring Practices in Community Supervision and the Potential Impact of Advanced Analytics](https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/gps-monitoring-practices-community-supervision-and-potential-impact-advanced), National Institute of Justice
21. [Tyler Technologies — Enterprise Supervision product page](https://www.tylertech.com/products/enterprise-supervision), Tyler Technologies
22. [DeveloApps — AI-Powered Client Management Software in Probation and Parole (2026)](https://develoapps.com/blog/client-management-probation-software-ai-supervision-tools/), DeveloApps
23. [NIJ — Tapping Into Artificial Intelligence for Community Supervision (2020)](https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/tapping-artificial-intelligence), National Institute of Justice
24. [Q2i PARCA — Agentic AI for Community Corrections press release (November 2025)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/parca-brings-agentic-ai-to-community-corrections-advancing-the-future-of-probation-and-parole-302616385.html), Q2i / PRNewswire

### Forecasts and exposure studies

25. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 21-1092 Probation officers and correctional treatment specialists (2025: 93.7 thousand; 2035: 96.5 thousand; +3.0%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=21-1092&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
26. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 21-1092.00, human-rated β 0.447)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

27. [San Mateo County Probation — History of Probation (John Augustus 1841-1859)](https://www.smcgov.org/probation/history-probation), San Mateo County Probation Department
28. [History of the United States Probation Office (Western District of New York) — Massachusetts 1878 statute](https://www.nywp.uscourts.gov/history-united-states-probation-office), United States District Court, Western District of New York
29. [Probation and Pretrial Services History — U.S. Courts (1925 National Probation Act; 1927 first officer)](https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/probation-and-pretrial-services/probation-and-pretrial-services-history), United States Courts
30. [Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 — Wikipedia (mandatory minimums, prison funding, three-strikes)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Crime_Control_and_Law_Enforcement_Act), Wikipedia
31. [COMPAS (software) — Wikipedia (2016 ProPublica investigation and racial bias findings)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMPAS_%28software%29), Wikipedia
32. [First Step Act — Wikipedia (December 21, 2018; risk-and-needs assessment, sentencing reform, Second Chance Act reauthorization)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Step_Act), Wikipedia
33. [Bureau of Justice Statistics — Probation and Parole in the United States, 2020 (8.3% single-year decline, lowest supervision rate since 1986)](https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/probation-and-parole-united-states-2020), Bureau of Justice Statistics

### Predecessors & successors

34. [San Mateo County Probation — History of Probation (John Augustus 1841)](https://www.smcgov.org/probation/history-probation), San Mateo County Probation Department
35. [History of the United States Probation Office (Western District of New York) — Captain Savage, first Boston probation officer, former police officer](https://www.nywp.uscourts.gov/history-united-states-probation-office), United States District Court, Western District of New York

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET 30.3 — Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists (21-1092.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/21-1092.00), accessed 2026-06-05
- [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/probation-officers-and-correctional-treatment-specialists.htm), accessed 2026-06-05
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-06-05
- [equivant Supervision — Pros and Cons of AI for Case Management in Probation and Parole (2024)](https://equivant-supervision.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-ai-for-case-management-in-probation-and-parole-supervision/), accessed 2026-06-05
- [DeveloApps — AI-Powered Client Management Software in Probation and Parole (2026)](https://develoapps.com/blog/client-management-probation-software-ai-supervision-tools/), accessed 2026-06-05
- [Tyler Technologies — Enterprise Supervision Product Page](https://www.tylertech.com/products/enterprise-supervision), accessed 2026-06-05
- [DeveloApps — Probation Management Software: Streamlining Operations in 2025](https://develoapps.com/cops/probation-management-software-case-management-automation-compliance-reporting-systems/), accessed 2026-06-05
- [Sentinel Offender Services — SentinelDNA Offender Management Platform](https://sentineladvantage.com/offender-management-platform/), accessed 2026-06-05

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.