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Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors vs Recreational Therapists

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder 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.”

Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors Recreational Therapists
Median pay · BLS OEWS
—
$60,280
Employment · BLS OEWS
—
15,060
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
76th pct
16th pct

At a glance

Dimension Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors Recreational Therapists
Median pay — $60,280
Employment — 15,060
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection — About average (+3.3%)
Annual openings · BLS projection — 1,300
Typical education · O*NET 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). 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 (73.3%) 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: Therapy and Counseling, Psychology, Education and Training, Active Listening, Speaking, Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Critical Thinking, Social Perceptiveness, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Speech Clarity, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Monitoring, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Written Expression, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Persuasion, Service Orientation, Judgment and Decision Making, Speech Recognition, Active Learning, Information Ordering, Coordination, Complex Problem Solving, Administration and Management, Sociology and Anthropology, Instructing, Fluency of Ideas, Learning Strategies, Negotiation, Systems Analysis, Category Flexibility.

Specific to Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors

  • Administrative
  • Philosophy and Theology
  • Systems Evaluation
  • Computers and Electronics

Specific to Recreational Therapists

  • Time Management
  • Originality
  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Near Vision

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

Specific to Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors

Specific to Recreational Therapists

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder 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. "Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder 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/substance-abuse-and-behavioral-disorder-counselors-vs-recreational-therapists

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors vs Recreational Therapists. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/substance-abuse-and-behavioral-disorder-counselors-vs-recreational-therapists

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-substance-abuse-and-behavioral-disorder-counselors-vs-recreational-therapists,
  title  = {Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder 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/substance-abuse-and-behavioral-disorder-counselors-vs-recreational-therapists}
}

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