In recent years early childhood education, along with the professionalization of staff working in this field, has been at the forefront of public interest. However, the well-being of professionals working in early childhood education has been explored only sporadically. In our cross-sectional, quantitative, descriptive research we surveyed the characteristics of professional well-being among Hungarian early childhood educators, kindergarten teachers, teaching assistants and nurses (n=1010), with primary emphasis on mental health. The measuring tool included questions referring to the teaching career, as well as standardized questionnaires applied in international surveys. As for workplace atmosphere, we can state that significant differences can be observed between professionals working in nurseries and kindergartens: the climate indicators of educators working is nurseries proved to be less favourable. In the sample, burnout is at low level, but three quarters of the respondents show mild depressive symptoms. The value measured on the depression scale shows a positive, close correlation with time spent in the career. Between job satisfaction, the social appreciation of workplace activity and the occurrence of depression a negative, significant correlation can be proved, which draws attention to the need for intervention.