Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · Holland code SIR
Physical Therapists
Assess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that improve mobility, relieve pain, increase strength, and improve or correct disabling conditions resulting from disease or injury.
Also called: Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT), Home Care Physical Therapist (Home Care PT), Inpatient Physical Therapist (Inpatient PT), Pediatric Physical Therapist (Pediatric PT), Acute Care PT (Acute Care Physical Therapist), Outpatient Physical Therapist (Outpatient PT), Registered Physical Therapist (RPT), Therapist.
O*NET 29-1123.00
At a glance
- US median annual pay
- $102,760
- Middle half earn $86,160 to $121,160. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
- Most common education
- Doctoral Degree
- 47% 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
- +11% · Much faster than average
- 267,200 jobs in 2024, projected 296,400. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups this with similar roles as "Physical therapists".
What the work involves
The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.
- Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
- Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
- Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.
- Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
- Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
- Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.
- Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
- Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
Skills and knowledge it leans on
Skills
- Reading Comprehension4.0 / 5
- Active Listening4.0 / 5
- Speaking4.0 / 5
- Critical Thinking4.0 / 5
- Writing3.9 / 5
- Monitoring3.9 / 5
Knowledge areas
- Customer and Personal Service4.6 / 5
- Therapy and Counseling4.6 / 5
- Medicine and Dentistry4.6 / 5
- Psychology4.1 / 5
- Education and Training4.0 / 5
- English Language4.0 / 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.
- Realistic56
- Investigative65
- Artistic19
- Social82
- Enterprising25
- 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)
- complementary therapist · DE Therapeut Komplementärmedizin/Therapeutin Komplementärmedizin · FR praticien de médecine alternative/praticienne de médecine alternative
- advanced physiotherapist · DE Fachphysiotherapeut/Fachphysiotherapeutin · FR expert physiothérapeute/experte physiothérapeute
- physiotherapist · DE Physiotherapeut/Physiotherapeutin · FR physiothérapeute
- kinesiologist · DE Kinesiologe/Kinesiologin · FR kinésiologue
- occupational therapist · DE Ergotherapeut/Ergotherapeutin · FR ergothérapeute
- occupational therapy assistant · DE Ergotherapieassistent/Ergotherapieassistentin · FR assistant ergothérapeute/assistante ergothérapeute
Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)
- Physiotherapists (2221)73,700 employed
- Occupational therapists (2222)56,000 employed
- Podiatrists (2256)16,200 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.
| 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 -0.36. 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 (29-1123).
Related careers
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.
Take the career interests test