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.
- Median pay
- $100,330
- Doing it now
- 169,600
- By 2035
- Up 14.8%
- Usually needs
- Master's degree
a year
across the country
10,000 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Complete and maintain necessary records.
- Evaluate patients' progress and prepare reports that detail progress.
- Test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients.
- Select activities that will help individuals learn work and life-management skills within limits of their mental or physical capabilities.
- 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.
- Recommend changes in patients' work or living environments, consistent with their needs and capabilities.
- Consult with rehabilitation team to select activity programs or coordinate occupational therapy with other therapeutic activities.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Rehabilitation and Therapeutic ProfessionsSee 281 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Helping and teaching
Analytical and curious
Hands-on and practical
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $100,330 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.