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Physical Therapists vs Respiratory Therapists

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Physical Therapists and Respiratory Therapists 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 Respiratory Therapists
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$101,020
$80,450
Employment · BLS OEWS
248,630
136,420
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
60th pct
12th pct

At a glance

Dimension Physical Therapists Respiratory Therapists
Median pay $101,020 $80,450
Employment 248,630 136,420
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+10.9%) Growing fast (+12.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 13,200 8,800
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 · 12th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 54th pct · 28% of tasks 57th pct · 30% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (58.3%) Augmentation-leaning (80.3%)
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, 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, Near Vision, Active Learning, Learning Strategies.

Specific to Physical Therapists

  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Administration and Management
  • Physics
  • Systems Analysis
  • Systems Evaluation
  • Sociology and Anthropology

Specific to Respiratory Therapists

  • Perceptual Speed
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Selective Attention
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Chemistry
  • Mathematics
  • Science

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 .

Specific to Physical Therapists

Specific to Respiratory Therapists

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Physical Therapists or Respiratory Therapists — 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 Respiratory Therapists." 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-respiratory-therapists

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-physical-therapists-vs-respiratory-therapists,
  title  = {Physical Therapists vs Respiratory Therapists},
  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-respiratory-therapists}
}

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