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Athletic Trainers vs Physical Therapist Assistants

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Athletic Trainers and Physical Therapist 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.”

Athletic Trainers Physical Therapist Assistants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$60,250
$65,510
Employment · BLS OEWS
28,950
108,010
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
34th pct
8th pct

At a glance

Dimension Athletic Trainers Physical Therapist Assistants
Median pay $60,250 $65,510
Employment 28,950 108,010
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+11.1%) Growing fast (+22.0%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 2,400 19,800
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 occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 34th pct Low · 8th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 45th pct · 25% of tasks 22nd pct · 17% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (56.4%) —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes 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: Medicine and Dentistry, Customer and Personal Service, Psychology, Problem Sensitivity, Active Listening, Oral Expression, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Comprehension, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Therapy and Counseling, Reading Comprehension, Active Learning, Social Perceptiveness, Written Expression, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, English Language, Education and Training, Instructing, Service Orientation, Oral Comprehension, Writing, Near Vision, Complex Problem Solving, Time Management, Biology, Coordination, Fluency of Ideas.

Specific to Athletic Trainers

  • Public Safety and Security
  • Administrative
  • Learning Strategies
  • Originality
  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Administration and Management

Specific to Physical Therapist Assistants

  • Computers and Electronics
  • Selective Attention
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Static Strength
  • Persuasion
  • Category Flexibility
  • Perceptual Speed

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: Office suite software , Spreadsheet software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Medical software , Data base user interface and query software , Calendar and scheduling software .

Specific to Athletic Trainers

Specific to Physical Therapist Assistants

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Athletic Trainers or Physical Therapist 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. "Athletic Trainers vs Physical Therapist 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/athletic-trainers-vs-physical-therapist-assistants

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Athletic Trainers vs Physical Therapist Assistants. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/athletic-trainers-vs-physical-therapist-assistants

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-athletic-trainers-vs-physical-therapist-assistants,
  title  = {Athletic Trainers vs Physical Therapist 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/athletic-trainers-vs-physical-therapist-assistants}
}

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