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Opticians, Dispensing vs Ophthalmic Medical Technicians

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Opticians, Dispensing and Ophthalmic Medical Technicians 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 Ophthalmic Medical Technicians
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$46,560
$44,080
Employment · BLS OEWS
79,690
76,520
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
44th pct
1st pct

At a glance

Dimension Opticians, Dispensing Ophthalmic Medical Technicians
Median pay $46,560 $44,080
Employment 79,690 76,520
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+2.9%) Growing fast (+19.8%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 6,800 12,500
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 · 1st pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 44th pct · 24% of tasks 63rd pct · 35% 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, Speaking, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Mathematics, 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, Education and Training, Information Ordering, Finger Dexterity, Writing, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Psychology, Category Flexibility, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Computers and Electronics, Active Learning, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Inductive Reasoning.

Specific to Opticians, Dispensing

  • Sales and Marketing
  • Production and Processing
  • Administration and Management
  • Persuasion
  • Law and Government
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Time Management
  • Personnel and Human Resources

Specific to Ophthalmic Medical Technicians

  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Selective Attention
  • Far Vision
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Control Precision
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Learning Strategies
  • Instructing

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 Ophthalmic Medical Technicians

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Opticians, Dispensing or Ophthalmic Medical Technicians — 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 Ophthalmic Medical Technicians." 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; 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-ophthalmic-medical-technicians

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-opticians-dispensing-vs-ophthalmic-medical-technicians,
  title  = {Opticians, Dispensing vs Ophthalmic Medical Technicians},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; 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-ophthalmic-medical-technicians}
}

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