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Athletic Trainers vs Sports Medicine Physicians

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Athletic Trainers and Sports Medicine Physicians 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 Sports Medicine Physicians
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$60,250
—
Employment · BLS OEWS
28,950
315,360
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
34th pct
35th pct

At a glance

Dimension Athletic Trainers Sports Medicine Physicians
Median pay $60,250 —
Employment 28,950 315,360
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+11.1%) About average (+2.5%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 2,400 9,600
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 Moderate · 34th pct Moderate · 35th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 45th pct · 25% of tasks —
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (56.4%) —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes —

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, Problem Sensitivity, Active Listening, Oral Expression, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Comprehension, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, 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, Learning Strategies, Coordination, Fluency of Ideas, Originality, Flexibility of Closure, Administration and Management.

Specific to Athletic Trainers

  • Psychology
  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Administrative
  • Multilimb Coordination

Specific to Sports Medicine Physicians

  • Systems Evaluation
  • Persuasion
  • Category Flexibility
  • Systems Analysis
  • Science

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 , Word processing software , Medical software , Internet browser software .

Specific to Athletic Trainers

Specific to Sports Medicine Physicians

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Athletic Trainers or Sports Medicine Physicians — 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 Sports Medicine Physicians." 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-sports-medicine-physicians

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Athletic Trainers vs Sports Medicine Physicians. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/athletic-trainers-vs-sports-medicine-physicians

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-athletic-trainers-vs-sports-medicine-physicians,
  title  = {Athletic Trainers vs Sports Medicine Physicians},
  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-sports-medicine-physicians}
}

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