Skip to content
Singulariki

Optometrists vs Ophthalmic Medical Technicians

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Optometrists 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.”

Optometrists Ophthalmic Medical Technicians
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$134,830
$44,080
Employment · BLS OEWS
41,890
76,520
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
17th pct
1st pct

At a glance

Dimension Optometrists Ophthalmic Medical Technicians
Median pay $134,830 $44,080
Employment 41,890 76,520
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+8.0%) Growing fast (+19.8%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 2,400 12,500
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 Low · 17th pct Low · 1st pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 43rd pct · 24% of tasks 63rd pct · 35% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (83.3%) —
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: Medicine and Dentistry, Customer and Personal Service, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Writing, Speaking, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Near Vision, English Language, Social Perceptiveness, Written Expression, Information Ordering, Category Flexibility, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Mathematics, Finger Dexterity, Education and Training, Psychology, Coordination, Judgment and Decision Making, Monitoring, Instructing, Service Orientation.

Specific to Optometrists

  • Biology
  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Science
  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Administration and Management
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Economics and Accounting
  • Physics

Specific to Ophthalmic Medical Technicians

  • Selective Attention
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Active Learning
  • Far Vision
  • Administrative
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Control Precision
  • Visual Color Discrimination

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

Specific to Optometrists

Specific to Ophthalmic Medical Technicians

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Optometrists 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. "Optometrists 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; 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/optometrists-vs-ophthalmic-medical-technicians

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-optometrists-vs-ophthalmic-medical-technicians,
  title  = {Optometrists 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; 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/optometrists-vs-ophthalmic-medical-technicians}
}

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