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Physician Assistants vs Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Physician Assistants and Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric 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.”

Physician Assistants Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$133,260
—
Employment · BLS OEWS
155,540
14,160
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
11th pct
24th pct

At a glance

Dimension Physician Assistants Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
Median pay $133,260 —
Employment 155,540 14,160
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+20.4%) About average (+4.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 12,000 400
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 Low · 11th pct Low · 24th 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

Specific to Physician Assistants

  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Biology
  • English Language
  • Psychology
  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Critical Thinking

Specific to Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric

    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 .

    Specific to Physician Assistants

    Specific to Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric

    Full profiles

    This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Physician Assistants or Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric — 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. "Physician Assistants vs Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric." 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/physician-assistants-vs-orthopedic-surgeons-except-pediatric

    APA

    Singulariki. (2026). Physician Assistants vs Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/physician-assistants-vs-orthopedic-surgeons-except-pediatric

    BibTeX 
    @misc{singulariki-physician-assistants-vs-orthopedic-surgeons-except-pediatric,
  title  = {Physician Assistants vs Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric},
  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/physician-assistants-vs-orthopedic-surgeons-except-pediatric}
}

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