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Recreational Therapists vs Physical Therapist Assistants

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Recreational 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.”

Recreational Therapists Physical Therapist Assistants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$60,280
$65,510
Employment · BLS OEWS
15,060
108,010
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
16th pct
8th pct

At a glance

Dimension Recreational Therapists Physical Therapist Assistants
Median pay $60,280 $65,510
Employment 15,060 108,010
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+3.3%) Growing fast (+22.0%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 1,300 19,800
Typical education · O*NET Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do 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 · 16th pct Low · 8th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 32nd pct · 20% of tasks 22nd pct · 17% 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, Education and Training, 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, Medicine and Dentistry, Judgment and Decision Making, Fluency of Ideas, Category Flexibility, Near Vision.

Specific to Recreational Therapists

  • Sociology and Anthropology
  • Learning Strategies
  • Administration and Management
  • Originality
  • Negotiation
  • Systems Analysis

Specific to Physical Therapist Assistants

  • Computers and Electronics
  • Biology
  • Selective Attention
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Static Strength
  • 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: Office suite software , Spreadsheet software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Medical software .

Specific to Recreational Therapists

Specific to Physical Therapist Assistants

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Recreational 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. "Recreational 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/recreational-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-assistants

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-recreational-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-assistants,
  title  = {Recreational 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/recreational-therapists-vs-physical-therapist-assistants}
}

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