Personal Care and Service · Holland code RCS

Funeral Attendants

Perform a variety of tasks during funeral, such as placing casket in parlor or chapel prior to service, arranging floral offerings or lights around casket, directing or escorting mourners, closing casket, and issuing and storing funeral equipment.

Also called: Funeral Assistant, Funeral Attendant, Funeral Director, Funeral Home Assistant, Funeral Associate, Funeral Greeter, Funeral Home Associate, Funeral Home Attendant.

O*NET 39-4021.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $35,680; Middle half earn $30,380 to $42,870. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED); 47% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 2 of 5; Some preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Embalm, dress, cosmeticize, and casket the deceased.
Prepare obituaries for newspapers.
Obtain burial permits and register deaths.
Transport the deceased to the funeral home.
Obtain doctors' signatures on death certificate and complete other paperwork, such as insurance claims forms.
Greet people at the funeral home.
Assist with cremations and the processing and packaging of cremated remains.
Perform a variety of tasks during funerals to assist funeral directors and to ensure that services run smoothly and as planned.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Active Listening3.1 / 5
Speaking3.0 / 5
Monitoring3.0 / 5
Reading Comprehension2.8 / 5
Critical Thinking2.6 / 5
Writing2.3 / 5

Knowledge areas

Customer and Personal Service4.4 / 5
English Language3.9 / 5
Administrative3.4 / 5
Transportation3.0 / 5
Computers and Electronics2.9 / 5
Law and Government2.7 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic66
Investigative1
Artistic14
Social49
Enterprising45
Conventional56

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

funeral attendant · DE Bestattunggehilfe/Bestattungsgehilfin · FR agent de pompes funèbres/agente de pompes funèbres

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Undertakers, mortuary and crematorium assistants (6138)16,700 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Service and sales workers”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Service and sales workers, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€32,957
Sweden	€32,596
Netherlands	€29,198
Austria	€29,068
Germany	€27,471
Ireland	€26,978
Italy	€24,995
France	€24,971
Spain	€18,303
Portugal	€10,656
Poland	€7,579

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of -0.54. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (39-4021).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test