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Respiratory Therapists vs Physical Therapist Assistants

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Respiratory 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.”

Respiratory Therapists Physical Therapist Assistants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$80,450
$65,510
Employment · BLS OEWS
136,420
108,010
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
12th pct
8th pct

At a glance

Dimension Respiratory Therapists Physical Therapist Assistants
Median pay $80,450 $65,510
Employment 136,420 108,010
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+12.1%) Growing fast (+22.0%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 8,800 19,800
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. 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 · 12th pct Low · 8th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 57th pct · 30% of tasks 22nd pct · 17% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (80.3%) —
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: Customer and Personal Service, Medicine and Dentistry, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Inductive Reasoning, English Language, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Oral Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Speaking, Written Comprehension, Near Vision, Education and Training, Reading Comprehension, Active Learning, Social Perceptiveness, Service Orientation, Written Expression, Speech Clarity, Psychology, Coordination, Complex Problem Solving, Judgment and Decision Making, Instructing, Biology, Perceptual Speed, Speech Recognition, Computers and Electronics, Writing, Time Management, Selective Attention.

Specific to Respiratory Therapists

  • Learning Strategies
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Chemistry
  • Mathematics
  • Science

Specific to Physical Therapist Assistants

  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Static Strength
  • Persuasion
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • 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: Medical software , Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Data base user interface and query software .

Specific to Respiratory Therapists

    Specific to Physical Therapist Assistants

    Full profiles

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

    APA

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

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

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