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Rehabilitation Counselors vs Recreational Therapists

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Rehabilitation Counselors and Recreational 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.”

Rehabilitation Counselors Recreational Therapists
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$46,110
$60,280
Employment · BLS OEWS
88,930
15,060
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
76th pct
16th pct

At a glance

Dimension Rehabilitation Counselors Recreational Therapists
Median pay $46,110 $60,280
Employment 88,930 15,060
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+1.4%) About average (+3.3%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 10,000 1,300
Typical education · O*NET Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies High · 76th pct Low · 16th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 53rd pct · 28% of tasks 32nd pct · 20% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (74.4%) Augmentation-leaning (63.1%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes 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, Therapy and Counseling, Active Listening, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Service Orientation, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Speech Clarity, Psychology, Education and Training, Monitoring, English Language, Written Comprehension, Written Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Inductive Reasoning, Speech Recognition, Writing, Critical Thinking, Coordination, Judgment and Decision Making, Sociology and Anthropology, Administration and Management, Time Management, Near Vision, Active Learning, Learning Strategies, Persuasion, Instructing, Complex Problem Solving, Systems Analysis, Fluency of Ideas.

Specific to Rehabilitation Counselors

  • Administrative
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Systems Evaluation

Specific to Recreational Therapists

  • Information Ordering
  • Originality
  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Negotiation
  • Category Flexibility

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 , Internet browser software , Voice recognition software .

Specific to Rehabilitation Counselors

Specific to Recreational Therapists

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Rehabilitation Counselors or Recreational 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. "Rehabilitation Counselors vs Recreational 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/rehabilitation-counselors-vs-recreational-therapists

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Rehabilitation Counselors vs Recreational Therapists. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/rehabilitation-counselors-vs-recreational-therapists

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-rehabilitation-counselors-vs-recreational-therapists,
  title  = {Rehabilitation Counselors vs Recreational 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/rehabilitation-counselors-vs-recreational-therapists}
}

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