Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · Holland code SIR

Occupational Therapists

Assess, plan, and organize rehabilitative programs that help build or restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to persons with disabilities or developmental delays. Use therapeutic techniques, adapt the individual's environment, teach skills, and modify specific tasks that present barriers to the individual.

Also called: Certified Hand Therapist (CHT), Occupational Therapist (OT), Pediatric Occupational Therapist (Pediatric OT), Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR), Assistive Technology Trainer, Early Intervention Occupational Therapist, Home Health Occupational Therapist, Industrial Rehabilitation Consultant.

O*NET 29-1122.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $100,330; Middle half earn $82,510 to $116,670. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: Master's Degree; 86% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 5 of 5; Extensive preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
US employment outlook, 2024 to 2034: +14% · Much faster than average; 160,000 jobs in 2024, projected 182,100. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups this with similar roles as "Occupational therapists".

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients.
Complete and maintain necessary records.
Plan, organize, and conduct occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate persons with disabilities because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems.
Plan and implement programs and social activities to help patients learn work or school skills and adjust to handicaps.
Select activities that will help individuals learn work and life-management skills within limits of their mental or physical capabilities.
Evaluate patients' progress and prepare reports that detail progress.
Train caregivers in providing for the needs of a patient during and after therapy.
Lay out materials such as puzzles, scissors and eating utensils for use in therapy, and clean and repair these tools after therapy sessions.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Active Listening4.1 / 5
Monitoring4.1 / 5
Reading Comprehension4.0 / 5
Writing4.0 / 5
Speaking4.0 / 5
Critical Thinking4.0 / 5

Knowledge areas

Therapy and Counseling4.7 / 5
Psychology4.5 / 5
Customer and Personal Service4.3 / 5
Medicine and Dentistry4.2 / 5
English Language4.1 / 5
Education and Training3.9 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic43
Investigative54
Artistic35
Social85
Enterprising14
Conventional35

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

advanced physiotherapist · DE Fachphysiotherapeut/Fachphysiotherapeutin · FR expert physiothérapeute/experte physiothérapeute
physiotherapist · DE Physiotherapeut/Physiotherapeutin · FR physiothérapeute
speech and language therapist · DE Sprachtherapeut/Sprachtherapeutin · FR orthophoniste
occupational therapist · DE Ergotherapeut/Ergotherapeutin · FR ergothérapeute
occupational therapy assistant · DE Ergotherapieassistent/Ergotherapieassistentin · FR assistant ergothérapeute/assistante ergothérapeute
recreational therapist · DE Aktivierungstherapeut/Aktivierungstherapeutin · FR ludothérapeute

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Occupational therapists (2222)56,000 employed
Podiatrists (2256)16,200 employed
Physiotherapists (2221)73,700 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Japan

Japan classifies jobs in its own way. The closest category that names the same work is “理学療法士，作業療法士，言語聴覚士，視能訓練士”, which may be narrower or broader than this occupation.

Median monthly pay: ¥286,000; Middle half earn ¥255,600 to ¥328,300 a month.
Workers in the category: 279,650; Regular employees in firms of ten or more.

Scheduled monthly pay before tax, excluding overtime and bonuses, so it is not comparable to the annual figures above. Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, via e-Stat, under the Japanese Government Standard Terms of Use. The category match was made by hand.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Professionals, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€61,714
Germany	€59,529
Ireland	€56,877
Austria	€55,374
Netherlands	€53,595
Sweden	€43,567
France	€41,515
Spain	€35,735
Italy	€33,649
Portugal	€26,072
Poland	€14,380

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +0.12. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (29-1122).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

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