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Recreational Therapists vs Physical Therapist Aides

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Recreational Therapists and Physical Therapist 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.”

Recreational Therapists Physical Therapist Aides
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$60,280
$34,520
Employment · BLS OEWS
15,060
44,010
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
16th pct
7th pct

At a glance

Dimension Recreational Therapists Physical Therapist Aides
Median pay $60,280 $34,520
Employment 15,060 44,010
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+3.3%) About average (+2.8%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 1,300 6,600
Typical education · O*NET Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 16th pct Low · 7th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 32nd pct · 20% of tasks 18th pct · 15% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (63.1%) —
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: Psychology, Therapy and Counseling, Customer and Personal Service, Service Orientation, English Language, Active Listening, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Speech Clarity, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Critical Thinking, Instructing, Written Comprehension, Written Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Speech Recognition, Information Ordering, Complex Problem Solving, Active Learning, Monitoring, Persuasion, Time Management, Judgment and Decision Making, Category Flexibility, Near Vision.

Specific to Recreational Therapists

  • Education and Training
  • Sociology and Anthropology
  • Learning Strategies
  • Administration and Management
  • Originality
  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Negotiation
  • Fluency of Ideas

Specific to Physical Therapist Aides

  • Computers and Electronics
  • Selective Attention
  • Trunk Strength
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Static Strength

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

Specific to Recreational Therapists

Specific to Physical Therapist Aides

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Recreational Therapists or Physical Therapist 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. "Recreational Therapists vs Physical Therapist 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/recreational-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-aides

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-recreational-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-aides,
  title  = {Recreational Therapists vs Physical Therapist 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/recreational-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-aides}
}

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