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Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians vs Opticians, Dispensing

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians and Opticians, Dispensing 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.”

Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians Opticians, Dispensing
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$38,420
$46,560
Employment · BLS OEWS
18,740
79,690
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
15th pct
44th pct

At a glance

Dimension Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians Opticians, Dispensing
Median pay $38,420 $46,560
Employment 18,740 79,690
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+2.3%) About average (+2.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 2,400 6,800
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. 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 Low · 15th pct Moderate · 44th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 16th pct · 14% of tasks 44th pct · 24% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
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: Production and Processing, Near Vision, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Finger Dexterity, Deductive Reasoning, Mathematics, Problem Sensitivity, Time Management, Information Ordering, Customer and Personal Service, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Administration and Management, Written Comprehension, Category Flexibility, Speech Recognition, English Language, Active Listening, Speaking, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Written Expression, Inductive Reasoning.

Specific to Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians

  • Manual Dexterity
  • Control Precision
  • Mechanical
  • Operation and Control
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Quality Control Analysis
  • Visualization
  • Selective Attention

Specific to Opticians, Dispensing

  • Sales and Marketing
  • Administrative
  • Speech Clarity
  • Service Orientation
  • Education and Training
  • Writing
  • Social Perceptiveness
  • Coordination

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 , Word processing software , Medical software .

Specific to Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians

Specific to Opticians, Dispensing

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians or Opticians, Dispensing — 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. "Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians vs Opticians, Dispensing." 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/ophthalmic-laboratory-technicians-vs-opticians-dispensing

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians vs Opticians, Dispensing. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/ophthalmic-laboratory-technicians-vs-opticians-dispensing

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-ophthalmic-laboratory-technicians-vs-opticians-dispensing,
  title  = {Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians vs Opticians, Dispensing},
  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/ophthalmic-laboratory-technicians-vs-opticians-dispensing}
}

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