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Cooks, Private Household

Also called: Certified Personal Chef (CPC), Personal Chef, Personal Private Chef, Private Chef

Prepare meals in private homes. Includes personal chefs.

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Median pay BLS, 2025$47,940
Openings a year BLS, 2025–355,000
Typical education to start BLSPostsecondary nondegree award
AI exposure BLS, Aug 2026 Moderate
Projected job growth BLS, 2025–35 +5.1%

What the data says: AI could halve the time on 5 of its 13 tasks, and jobs are projected to grow 5.1% by 2035. How to think about this →

About this projection

BLS builds AI into its projections where the research supports it: “BLS generally applies adjustments based on this research conservatively, where there is convincing evidence for a change.”

It also notes a limit: “BLS projection methods are not designed to capture extremely rapid technological change.”

On its AI exposure groups, BLS says exposure “does not imply job loss.”

Recent conditions

  • In 2024, 8.0% of people in this work were unemployed, against 3.8% across all occupations Census ACS 2024, all workers in the Census group “Cooks”
  • From Sep 2025 to Aug 2026, 7.7 hires for every 10 job openings in other services, which employs about 100% of people in this work, against 7.3 across all industries BLS JOLTS One box per opening, filled for each hire; hires beyond the openings are added in a lighter shade. Higher can mean openings get filled, or that people leave often; lower, that jobs go unfilled, or hiring is slow.

How to read these

Pay compared with all occupations BLS median wages Pays more than 27% of 825 occupations
lowest-paidhighest-paid

Median pay by state BLS OEWS May 2025, state estimates

$37k$37knot published

Median pay in every state
StateMedianMiddle half earnJobs
Californianot publishednot published110
New York$37,440$37,120 to $41,860140

Nationally: $47,940. Shades run from the lowest state median to the highest; a territory below that range takes the lightest. How to read this

How AI touches the work

What AI could speed up, task by task, and where people already use it.

AI could halve the time on 5 of its 13 tasks

2 · AI alone could halve the time 3 · AI + software built on it could 8 · Not much
AI ratingIts main tasks Share of Claude conversations
May 2026
Not much Peel, wash, trim, and cook vegetables and meats, and bake breads and pastries. Not published
Not much Cool, package, label, and freeze foods for later consumption and provide instructions for reheating. Not published
AI alone Plan menus according to employers' needs and diet restrictions. 0.02%
AI + software Shop for or order food and kitchen supplies and equipment. Not published
AI + software Keep records pertaining to menus, finances, and other business-related issues. Not published
Not much Stock, organize, and clean kitchens and cooking utensils. Not published
See all 13 tasks
Not much Prepare meals in private homes according to employers' recipes or tastes, handling all meals for the family and possibly for other household staff. Not published
Not much Specialize in preparing fancy dishes or food for special diets. Not published
Not much Direct the operation and organization of kitchens and all food-related activities, including the presentation and serving of food. Not published
AI alone Create and explore new cuisines. 0.01%
AI + software Plan and prepare food for parties, holiday meals, luncheons, special functions, and other social events. under 0.01%
Not much Serve meals and snacks to employing families and their guests. Not published
Not much Travel with employers to vacation homes to provide meal preparation at those locations. Not published

Ordered by how important O*NET's respondents rate each task (1 to 5) times the share who say it is part of their job. The ordering is ours. 3 of the 13 have a published share of Claude conversations; “not published” means too few conversations for Anthropic to publish a figure.

Where people already use AI

The tasks above say what AI could speed up. This shows what people are using it for. Its 13 tasks fall under 8 work activities that many occupations share, and Microsoft counted how often each one came up in 200,000 conversations with its Copilot assistant in 2024.

Tasks AI could speed up5 of 13 tasksEloundou et al. ratings (2023)
Its activities among the 50 people ask AI for help with most2 of 8 activities
  • #33 Compile records, documentation, or other data
  • #36 Purchase goods or services
Microsoft Copilot (2024), ranked among all 332 activities. The cut-off of 50 is ours.
Work activity This occupation's tasks under it People asked AI for help
in 10,000 conversations		 AI did it for them
in 10,000 conversations
Prepare foods or beverages 12#82 0.79#174
Develop recipes or menus 5.84#116 2.72#117
Compile records, documentation, or other data 52#33 33#37
Purchase goods or services 47#36 0.39#220
Plan events or programs 5.26#123 1.90#133
Direct organizational operations, activities, or procedures 1.85#204 0.36#225
Provide food or beverage services 1.03#234 0.19#245
Stock supplies or products 0.28#288 0.02#305
Task: AI alone Task: AI + software Task: not much #: rank among all 332 activities Microsoft measured (#1 = most common; activities that never came up share last place, shown as “tied”)

How people in this work use Claude

What people in this work made with Claude % of conversations

  • A recipe or meal plan70%
  • A document or report8%
  • A plan or strategy4%
  • Data or a spreadsheet4%
  • Ideas or a brainstorm3%

How they worked with Claude

39% handed the task off61% worked on it together

8% of these conversations were about work. Anthropic Economic Index, May 2026.

How to read this

Work activities come from O*NET, which links every task to the broader activities it involves. Microsoft's figures are for the activity across everyone who used Copilot, not for cooks, private household specifically. Copilot is a general chat assistant; dedicated coding tools are not included, so programming help is under-counted here. Activities are listed by how many of this occupation's tasks fall under them.

The task ratings say whether AI could halve the time a task takes: on its own (“AI alone”), or with software built on it (“AI + software”). They were made by people in 2023 (Eloundou et al.). Claude's share is the task's share of all Claude.ai conversations in May 2026; Anthropic doesn't publish a task with too few conversations. None of these add up to the BLS exposure group, which combines five research measures.

More in the Guide: task ratings · task order · work activities · Copilot figures · Claude

High exposure doesn't mean fewer jobs

BLS projects most occupations in its two most exposed groups to grow: 141 of 206 rated Very high and 165 of 206 rated High. Each dot is one of the 831 occupations BLS rates.

AI exposure and projected job growth, 831 occupationsLow exposure: 134 of 213 occupations projected to grow. Moderate exposure: 151 of 206 occupations projected to grow. High exposure: 165 of 206 occupations projected to grow. Very high exposure: 141 of 206 occupations projected to grow.-20%-15%-10%-5%0%+5%+10%+15%+20%+25%Low134 of 213 growingModerate151 of 206 growingHigh165 of 206 growingVery high141 of 206 growing11 occupations outside −20% to +25% are drawn at the edge. Click a dot to see that occupation.Cooks, private household: +5.1%Cooks, Private HouseholdAI exposure and projected job growth, 831 occupationsLow exposure: 134 of 213 occupations projected to grow. Moderate exposure: 151 of 206 occupations projected to grow. High exposure: 165 of 206 occupations projected to grow. Very high exposure: 141 of 206 occupations projected to grow.-20%-15%-10%-5%0%+5%+10%+15%+20%+25%Low134 of 213Moderate151 of 206High165 of 206Very high141 of 20611 occupations outside −20% to +25% are drawn at the edge. Tap a dot.Cooks, private household: +5.1%Cooks, Private Household

Career moves into and out of this occupation

From moves between occupations found in online resumes, 2002–2016. Career changes only: a first job after school isn't a move.

Where people moved next

of 594 moves out

  1. 1 Computer Occupations, All Other (2010 group) an older group BLS has since split; no exposure group today 7%
  2. 2 Managers, All Other (2010 group) an older group BLS has since split; no exposure group today 5%
  3. 3 Customer Service Representatives Very high -5.3% 5%
  4. 4 Technical Writers Very high +0.8% 4%
  5. 5 General and Operations Managers High +5.0% 3%

Where people moved in from

of 1,098 moves in

  1. 1 Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks Very high -5.6% 16%
  2. 2 Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products Very high -0.9% 9%
  3. 3 Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors Very high +2.9% 6%
  4. 4 Computer Occupations, All Other (2010 group) an older group BLS has since split; no exposure group today 6%
  5. 5 Managers, All Other (2010 group) an older group BLS has since split; no exposure group today 6%

Resumes over-represent younger, white-collar job-seekers and moves into management. Schubert, Stansbury and Taska (resume data).

Education and training for the occupation

Education people in it hold

O*NET survey of workers in this occupation

  • 15% less than high school
  • 31% high school
  • 38% postsecondary certificate
  • 4% some college
  • 12% associate's

O*NET 31.0 survey of workers in this occupation · 26 people answered.

Census survey (American Community Survey)

  • 28% less than high school
  • 42% high school
  • 19% some college
  • 5% associate's
  • 5% bachelor's
  • 1% master's

Census ACS 2024, all workers in the Census group “Cooks” · 20,501 people surveyed.

Why the two can differ

O*NET asks about 20 people in each occupation, which makes its shares uncertain, but it reports the exact occupation and counts certificates. The Census survey reaches thousands, but it groups some occupations together and counts degrees only. More in the Guide

Median pay by highest degree full-time, year-round · Census ACS 2024, all workers in the Census group “Cooks”

Programs that prepare people for it (NCES)
3 programs: Culinary Arts/Chef Training, Restaurant, Culinary, and Catering Management/Manager and Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant.

Jobs that require a credential BLS Occupational Requirements Survey 2023

BLS publishes no credential figures for this occupation.

Look up certifications, training and licenses U.S. Department of Labor

These open in a new tab and send only the occupation's public code. More in the Guide

See where your own career could go Start by uploading your resume Browse careers

BLS AI exposure categories (Aug 2026) · BLS Employment Projections 2025–35 · O*NET 31.0 · Task ratings: Eloundou et al., Science (2024) · Microsoft "Working with AI" v1.1 · Anthropic Economic Index (2026-06-26) · Schubert, Stansbury and Taska · NCES CIP–SOC · Census ACS 2024 · BLS JOLTS

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