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Physical Therapist Aides vs Occupational Therapy Assistants

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Physical Therapist Aides and Occupational Therapy 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.”

Physical Therapist Aides Occupational Therapy Assistants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$34,520
$68,340
Employment · BLS OEWS
44,010
47,910
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
7th pct
25th pct

At a glance

Dimension Physical Therapist Aides Occupational Therapy Assistants
Median pay $34,520 $68,340
Employment 44,010 47,910
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+2.8%) Growing fast (+19.2%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 6,600 7,200
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 · 7th pct Low · 25th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 18th pct · 15% of tasks 57th pct · 30% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Augmentation-leaning (70.8%)
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, English Language, Active Listening, Computers and Electronics, Oral Comprehension, Therapy and Counseling, Monitoring, Service Orientation, Problem Sensitivity, Speech Recognition, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Oral Expression, Near Vision, Writing, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Active Learning, Instructing, Time Management, Written Comprehension, Written Expression, Inductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Speech Clarity, Psychology, Public Safety and Security, Complex Problem Solving, Deductive Reasoning, Category Flexibility, Static Strength, Administrative, Judgment and Decision Making.

Specific to Physical Therapist Aides

  • Selective Attention
  • Trunk Strength
  • Persuasion
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Multilimb Coordination

Specific to Occupational Therapy Assistants

  • Education and Training
  • Learning Strategies
  • Sociology and Anthropology
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Systems Analysis

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: Medical software , Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Word processing software , Calendar and scheduling software .

Specific to Physical Therapist Aides

    Specific to Occupational Therapy Assistants

    Full profiles

    This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Physical Therapist Aides or Occupational Therapy 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. "Physical Therapist Aides vs Occupational Therapy 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/physical-therapist-aides-vs-occupational-therapy-assistants

    APA

    Singulariki. (2026). Physical Therapist Aides vs Occupational Therapy Assistants. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/physical-therapist-aides-vs-occupational-therapy-assistants

    BibTeX 
    @misc{singulariki-physical-therapist-aides-vs-occupational-therapy-assistants,
  title  = {Physical Therapist Aides vs Occupational Therapy 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/physical-therapist-aides-vs-occupational-therapy-assistants}
}

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