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Orthoptists vs Physician Assistants

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Orthoptists and Physician Assistants 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.”

Orthoptists Physician Assistants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$113,730
$133,260
Employment · BLS OEWS
30,870
155,540
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
44th pct
11th pct

At a glance

Dimension Orthoptists Physician Assistants
Median pay $113,730 $133,260
Employment 30,870 155,540
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+2.0%) Growing fast (+20.4%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 2,400 12,000
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 · 44th pct Low · 11th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 43rd pct · 23% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Augmentation-leaning (73.1%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman — 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, English Language, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Oral Expression, Written Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Customer and Personal Service, Education and Training, Reading Comprehension, Science, Near Vision, Writing, Service Orientation, Complex Problem Solving, Judgment and Decision Making, Psychology, Active Learning, Biology, Monitoring, Systems Evaluation, Flexibility of Closure, Coordination, Time Management, Information Ordering, Category Flexibility.

Specific to Orthoptists

  • Learning Strategies
  • Instructing
  • Systems Analysis
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Originality

Specific to Physician Assistants

  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Sociology and Anthropology
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Chemistry
  • Mathematics
  • Persuasion

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 , Word processing software , Medical software , Electronic mail software .

Specific to Orthoptists

Specific to Physician Assistants

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Orthoptists or Physician Assistants — 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. "Orthoptists vs Physician Assistants." 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/orthoptists-vs-physician-assistants

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Orthoptists vs Physician Assistants. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/orthoptists-vs-physician-assistants

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-orthoptists-vs-physician-assistants,
  title  = {Orthoptists vs Physician Assistants},
  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/orthoptists-vs-physician-assistants}
}

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