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Respiratory Therapists vs Physical Therapists

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

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

Respiratory Therapists Physical Therapists
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$80,450
$101,020
Employment · BLS OEWS
136,420
248,630
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
12th pct
60th pct

At a glance

Dimension Respiratory Therapists Physical Therapists
Median pay $80,450 $101,020
Employment 136,420 248,630
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+12.1%) Growing fast (+10.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 8,800 13,200
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 of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 12th pct Moderate · 60th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 57th pct · 30% of tasks 54th pct · 28% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (80.3%) Augmentation-leaning (58.3%)
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, Speech Recognition, Writing, Learning Strategies, Time Management.

Specific to Respiratory Therapists

  • Perceptual Speed
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Selective Attention
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Chemistry
  • Mathematics
  • Science

Specific to Physical Therapists

  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Administration and Management
  • Physics
  • Systems Analysis
  • Systems Evaluation
  • Sociology and Anthropology

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 , Word processing software .

Specific to Respiratory Therapists

Specific to Physical Therapists

Full profiles

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

APA

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

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

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