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Psychiatric Aides vs Occupational Therapy Aides

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

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

Psychiatric Aides Occupational Therapy Aides
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$41,590
$37,370
Employment · BLS OEWS
34,900
5,000
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
17th pct
9th pct

At a glance

Dimension Psychiatric Aides Occupational Therapy Aides
Median pay $41,590 $37,370
Employment 34,900 5,000
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-0.4%) About average (+2.5%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 5,300 600
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 · 17th pct Low · 9th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 18th pct · 15% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Augmentation-leaning (60.8%)
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: Psychology, Oral Expression, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Service Orientation, Oral Comprehension, Problem Sensitivity, Active Listening, Monitoring, Written Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Customer and Personal Service, Inductive Reasoning, Speech Clarity, Critical Thinking, Speech Recognition, Active Learning, Coordination, Information Ordering, Therapy and Counseling, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Instructing, Complex Problem Solving, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Expression, Near Vision, English Language, Persuasion, Category Flexibility, Trunk Strength, Administrative, Learning Strategies.

Specific to Psychiatric Aides

  • Selective Attention
  • Far Vision
  • Negotiation
  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Auditory Attention
  • Sociology and Anthropology

Specific to Occupational Therapy Aides

  • Computers and Electronics
  • Education and Training
  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Time Management
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness

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 , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Medical software .

Specific to Psychiatric Aides

Specific to Occupational Therapy Aides

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Psychiatric Aides or Occupational Therapy Aides — 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. "Psychiatric Aides vs Occupational Therapy Aides." 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/psychiatric-aides-vs-occupational-therapy-aides

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Psychiatric Aides vs Occupational Therapy Aides. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/psychiatric-aides-vs-occupational-therapy-aides

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-psychiatric-aides-vs-occupational-therapy-aides,
  title  = {Psychiatric Aides vs Occupational Therapy Aides},
  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/psychiatric-aides-vs-occupational-therapy-aides}
}

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