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Anesthesiologists vs Physician Assistants

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Anesthesiologists and Physician Assistants on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Anesthesiologists Physician Assistants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
—
$133,260
Employment · BLS OEWS
41,890
155,540
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
6th pct
11th pct

At a glance

Dimension Anesthesiologists Physician Assistants
Median pay — $133,260
Employment 41,890 155,540
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+3.2%) Growing fast (+20.4%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 1,300 12,000
Typical education · O*NET Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree). Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 6th pct Low · 11th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 43rd pct · 23% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Augmentation-leaning (73.1%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman — No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Problem Sensitivity, Medicine and Dentistry, Critical Thinking, Oral Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Biology, Written Comprehension, Inductive Reasoning, Active Listening, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Oral Expression, Near Vision, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Science, Complex Problem Solving, Written Expression, Speaking, Information Ordering, Social Perceptiveness, Time Management, Flexibility of Closure, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, English Language, Active Learning, Chemistry, Customer and Personal Service, Psychology, Service Orientation, Systems Evaluation.

Specific to Anesthesiologists

  • Selective Attention
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Learning Strategies
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Physics

Specific to Physician Assistants

  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Education and Training
  • Sociology and Anthropology
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Mathematics
  • Category Flexibility
  • Coordination
  • Persuasion

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Medical software , Spreadsheet software , Electronic mail software , Word processing software , Internet browser software .

Specific to Anesthesiologists

Specific to Physician Assistants

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Anesthesiologists or Physician Assistants — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Anesthesiologists vs Physician Assistants." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/anesthesiologists-vs-physician-assistants

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Anesthesiologists vs Physician Assistants. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/anesthesiologists-vs-physician-assistants

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-anesthesiologists-vs-physician-assistants,
  title  = {Anesthesiologists vs Physician Assistants},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/anesthesiologists-vs-physician-assistants}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.