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Physical Therapists vs Physical Therapist Assistants

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Physical Therapists and Physical Therapist 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 Therapists Physical Therapist Assistants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$101,020
$65,510
Employment · BLS OEWS
248,630
108,010
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
60th pct
8th pct

At a glance

Dimension Physical Therapists Physical Therapist Assistants
Median pay $101,020 $65,510
Employment 248,630 108,010
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+10.9%) Growing fast (+22.0%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 13,200 19,800
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 Moderate · 60th pct Low · 8th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 54th pct · 28% of tasks 22nd pct · 17% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (58.3%) —
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: Customer and Personal Service, Therapy and Counseling, Medicine and Dentistry, Psychology, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Social Perceptiveness, Service Orientation, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Oral Expression, Education and Training, English Language, Writing, Monitoring, Written Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Judgment and Decision Making, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Biology, Time Management, Instructing, Complex Problem Solving, Coordination, Fluency of Ideas, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Near Vision, Active Learning.

Specific to Physical Therapists

  • Administration and Management
  • Physics
  • Learning Strategies
  • Systems Analysis
  • Systems Evaluation
  • Sociology and Anthropology

Specific to Physical Therapist Assistants

  • Computers and Electronics
  • Selective Attention
  • Static Strength
  • Persuasion
  • Category Flexibility
  • Perceptual Speed

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 , Action games , Accounting software , Calendar and scheduling software .

Specific to Physical Therapists

Specific to Physical Therapist Assistants

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Physical Therapists or Physical Therapist 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 Therapists vs Physical Therapist 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-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-assistants

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Physical Therapists vs Physical Therapist Assistants. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/physical-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-assistants

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-physical-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-assistants,
  title  = {Physical Therapists vs Physical Therapist 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-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-assistants}
}

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