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Opticians, Dispensing vs Hearing Aid Specialists

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Opticians, Dispensing and Hearing Aid Specialists 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.”

Opticians, Dispensing Hearing Aid Specialists
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$46,560
$61,560
Employment · BLS OEWS
79,690
10,580
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
44th pct
29th pct

At a glance

Dimension Opticians, Dispensing Hearing Aid Specialists
Median pay $46,560 $61,560
Employment 79,690 10,580
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+2.9%) Growing fast (+18.4%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 6,800 1,000
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's 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 · 44th pct Low · 29th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 44th pct · 24% of tasks 27th pct · 18% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No 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: Customer and Personal Service, Sales and Marketing, Speaking, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Active Listening, Near Vision, Administrative, Reading Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, English Language, Written Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Critical Thinking, Service Orientation, Administration and Management, Education and Training, Information Ordering, Writing, Social Perceptiveness, Persuasion, Psychology, Category Flexibility, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Computers and Electronics, Active Learning, Monitoring, Complex Problem Solving, Judgment and Decision Making, Personnel and Human Resources, Inductive Reasoning.

Specific to Opticians, Dispensing

  • Mathematics
  • Production and Processing
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Coordination
  • Law and Government
  • Time Management

Specific to Hearing Aid Specialists

  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Economics and Accounting
  • Instructing
  • Engineering and Technology
  • Flexibility of Closure

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 Opticians, Dispensing

Specific to Hearing Aid Specialists

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Opticians, Dispensing or Hearing Aid Specialists — 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. "Opticians, Dispensing vs Hearing Aid Specialists." 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/opticians-dispensing-vs-hearing-aid-specialists

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Opticians, Dispensing vs Hearing Aid Specialists. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/opticians-dispensing-vs-hearing-aid-specialists

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-opticians-dispensing-vs-hearing-aid-specialists,
  title  = {Opticians, Dispensing vs Hearing Aid Specialists},
  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/opticians-dispensing-vs-hearing-aid-specialists}
}

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