The personal care and services industry includes those jobs that pertain to household services. Workers that do domestic work, such as maids, babysitters, animal care and services, personal care aides, as well as those who provide home maintenance services, such as exterminators, window washers, and tree trimmers, are in the personal care and services profession.

Dating back to the Middle Ages, wealthy landowners and royalty had household staff that attended to their every need, from sewing their clothes and cleaning their homes to caring for and educating their children. Since the 1800s, domestic workers’ jobs include maids, butlers, housekeepers, grooms and stable boys, babysitters and nannies, and gardeners. Wealthy families may employ a full staff of domestic workers, with full-time salary with benefits as well as room and board for staff to live on site. Some domestic workers, such as babysitters and nannies, travel with families when they take vacations, providing child care services throughout the trip. And it isn’t just the wealthy who retain household services help. People of all income levels employ personal care workers to help with a single job or ongoing work; for instance, babysitters, dog walkers, tree trimmers, exterminators, window washers, and others, are hired when needed, and landscapers and gardeners may be contracted on a weekly or monthly basis.   

The Department of Labor reports that there were the following number of personal care and services professionals employed in the United States in May 2018: 199,850 nonfarm animal caretakers (includes pet-sitters who care for dogs, cats, and other animals); 924,290 maids and housekeepers; 42,440 tree trimmers and pruners; 2.4 million janitors and cleaners (including window washers); 77,300 pest control workers; 564,630 childcare workers (including those who work in private households); 2,211,950 personal care aides.

According to the market research group IBISWorld, the Maids, ...