Pet Care & Grooming Careers
Pet care and grooming serves pet owners with boarding, grooming, and related services. High credential requirements for some services with fully on-site work.
Pet care and grooming serves animal companions and their people — there's satisfaction in working with animals, making pets look and feel good, and being part of the human-animal bond. Many find meaning in animal care.
The challenge can come from physical demands and animal handling. Pet work involves bites, scratches, and difficult animals. Physical demands of handling and grooming are significant. Owners can be demanding. Pay is typically modest.
The field varies by service and setting. Grooming differs from pet sitting, boarding, daycare, or retail. Mobile groomers differ from salon-based. Independent businesses differ from chains.
For those who thrive here, the rewards are genuine: working with animals, pet community, customer relationships, and creative satisfaction in grooming. If you love animals, want pet industry careers, and can handle the physical and behavioral challenges, pet care offers fulfilling opportunities.
No formal licenses required in most states, though grooming certification adds credibility. Many start as kennel attendants or walking assistants. Building a client base enables independence.
Common roles in Pet Care & Grooming
A curated look at the roles that shape Pet Care & Grooming — from accessible ways in to senior destinations.
Median salaries range from ~$68K in mid-market metros to ~$98K in top-tier cities. But cost of living closes a lot of that gap — metros with lower regional price parities often offer the best purchasing power.
Is other services hiring right now?
Pet Care & Grooming is part of other services in the government’s monthly JOLTS report. Openings, hiring and quits here are all close to the national rates. Latest data: September 2026.
See how every industry and region compares → · What JOLTS is and how it’s calculated
What the data says about this sector
Beyond salary and job counts — signals that shape the day-to-day experience of working in Pet Care & Grooming.
Small
<501%
Mid
50–2490%
Large
250+
Career tracks in Pet Care & Grooming
How jobs in this sector break down by function, and what they typically pay.
Don't know if you want to stay in your job?
Get your career on record. Then decide.
Other sectors within Consumer Services.
Common questions about Pet Care & Grooming careers
What kinds of roles exist in pet care and grooming?
Pet care businesses — grooming salons, boarding kennels, and daycare facilities — run on client-facing staff at the front desk, scheduling and service-intake roles, facility and activity staff, and site managers who keep operations running.
How many people work in pet care?
Pet care sits inside the broader consumer services sector; federal data for that wider group counts roughly 1.5 million workers.
What does pet care work pay?
Across the broader group of services that includes pet care, median pay is around $41,000 a year. Pay varies a lot by role, from entry desk work to multi-site management.
Is turnover high in pet care?
Across the broader consumer services sector, about 2.5% of workers quit in a typical month in 2024, so movement between employers is common.
What are common ways in?
Most people start in hands-on or front-of-house roles — reception, scheduling, or assisting with animal care — and learn on the job. From there, paths lead toward grooming specialization or site management.
Do one small thing to grow in your career this week.
Not sure where to start? Pick one of these. Each comes with the words to use.
- Simple exerciseGive quick, specific thanks to someone who helped you recently.Say what worked
- Simple exerciseProtect time for the growth that matters most, yours.Claim time for your own growth
- Simple exerciseSee a company the way its own people do, before you ask to join it.Understand a company before you apply
- Simple exerciseStop researching and make the call, with enough information rather than all of it.Set yourself a decide-by date
More career advice
- Ask how your manager likes to work
- Repeat the ask back before you start
- Collect stories of you at your best
- Sketch three possible futures
- Have the conversation you've been avoiding
- Understand what another team needs
- Match your feedback questions to the right people
- Ask for your first real piece of feedback
We believe careers grow through small steps taken often, more than big leaps. So we’ve collected hundreds of them for you to try.
Browse career adviceYour job belongs to your employer.
Your career belongs to you.
Truest editorial: Industry narrative, sector context, career track mapping, working signals analysis.
Don't know if you want to stay in your job?
Get your career on record. Then decide.