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Art Therapists vs Recreational Therapists

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Art Therapists and Recreational Therapists 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.”

Art Therapists Recreational Therapists
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$65,010
$60,280
Employment · BLS OEWS
19,320
15,060
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
30th pct
16th pct

At a glance

Dimension Art Therapists Recreational Therapists
Median pay $65,010 $60,280
Employment 19,320 15,060
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+11.5%) About average (+3.3%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 4,100 1,300
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 a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 30th pct Low · 16th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 32nd pct · 20% of tasks 32nd pct · 20% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Augmentation-leaning (63.1%)
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: Therapy and Counseling, Psychology, Social Perceptiveness, Sociology and Anthropology, Customer and Personal Service, Active Listening, Speaking, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Near Vision, Speech Clarity, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Expression, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Speech Recognition, Active Learning, Service Orientation, Fluency of Ideas, Education and Training, Writing, English Language, Complex Problem Solving, Coordination, Time Management, Originality, Learning Strategies, Persuasion, Instructing, Category Flexibility, Negotiation, Systems Analysis.

Specific to Art Therapists

  • Fine Arts
  • Philosophy and Theology
  • Selective Attention

Specific to Recreational Therapists

  • Information Ordering
  • Administration and Management
  • Medicine and Dentistry

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: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Internet browser software .

Specific to Art Therapists

Specific to Recreational Therapists

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Art Therapists or Recreational Therapists — 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. "Art Therapists vs Recreational Therapists." 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/art-therapists-vs-recreational-therapists

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Art Therapists vs Recreational Therapists. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/art-therapists-vs-recreational-therapists

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-art-therapists-vs-recreational-therapists,
  title  = {Art Therapists vs Recreational Therapists},
  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/art-therapists-vs-recreational-therapists}
}

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