Massage Therapists

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Explore safer careers (1)

Lower estimated automation risk

Recreational Therapists
4% automation risk | Minimal Risk
8.9 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses client assessment, therapeutic activities, wellness goals, communication, and motivation.

Alternative careers

Related career paths that build on similar skills and experience

Occupational Therapy Assistants
20% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better Higher growth
View career
Why it fits

Transfers body awareness, adaptive activities, patient encouragement, documentation, and therapy support.

Physical Therapist Assistants
18% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
View career
Why it fits

Applies anatomy, range-of-motion awareness, therapeutic touch, progress notes, and patient coaching.

Fitness and Wellness Coordinators
20% automation risk | Low Risk
View career
Why it fits

Fits therapists moving into wellness programs, schedules, staff coordination, client goals, and safety.

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
7.0/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

13% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
Jobs that also use this strength

Working directly with the public

Very important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
Jobs that also use this strength

Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Show 2 more strengths

Psychology knowledge

Quite important
Why this matters
Understanding human behavior, motivation, and individual differences to assess needs, respond appropriately, and support behavior change or mental health.
Jobs that also use this strength

Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 220 votes

30% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 13% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Massage Therapists will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Massage Therapists was $57,950 ($28 per hour).

The median annual wage for Massage Therapists was 17.1% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Massage Therapists' job openings is expected to rise 15.4% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 96,040 people employed as 'Massage Therapists' within the United States.

This represents around 0.06% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 1 thousand people are employed as 'Massage Therapists'.

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What people are saying (20)

Leave a comment
Maggie (No chance)
21 May 2025 01:04
Massage therapy is more complex than the massage chairs at the mall. There is an element of touch that comes from another person that plays a role. Further more, sensory processing is an essential component of being a massage therapist. Our nervous system is so complex in its ability to sense things that robots are not equipped to sense. Palpation and other sensory assessments are crucial to providing a quality a massage and that cannot be effectively emulated by a robot.
Lynn (Low)
14 Oct 2024 21:05
Massage therapy is more that just human to human contact. It requires the ability to read body language of clients and being able to express empathy that is genuine from lived experience- two things that won't be possible for AI to ever TRULY express.
Sagedreamz (Uncertain)
03 Feb 2024 18:21
Nothing is Greater than human touch human connection we are vibrational beings not data input output HDMI pugs. Our download is Reiki Energy healing from one human to the other the connection comes in a cycle of giver and receiver. No AI machine would ever transmit that.
Tiffini (Low)
25 Apr 2023 19:05
This job requires the ability to accurately read and interpret the nuances of what it takes to make a human comfortable across different personality types and cultural differences. There is a mysterious element of manipulating energy, acute awareness and ability to change tactics to match the needs of each individual that I very much doubt a robot could emulate. A machine massage is ok but a human massage seems irreplaceable.
Dex (No chance)
18 Sep 2022 22:52
The massage robots I’ve seen simply roll different tools back and forth over the body… which in no way comes close to what a skilled massage therapist does. Plus many clients seek massage specifically because they are craving HUMAN contact.
Kristine (No chance)
04 May 2022 10:51
It's customized and complicated for each person and personality. No way a robot could be proficient in it.
Noel Masip
22 Sep 2021 10:55
The reason why robots can't do this job? The first fundamental rules of the robots: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. There are the "Hard massages", when people want to feel the pain to feel better Hard massages, Ventusa, Thai massage, Scrubs and others, do "pain" to feel better later. And also, there are people who when you do the massage, want it harder, in that moment the robot, will blow up and fail to do the massage to the customer. Unless AI is very well developed, but not in this century...
anika (No chance)
28 Dec 2020 08:46
becauseeeee how is steel and metal going to make massages feel good
Greg Dahlen (No chance)
08 Oct 2020 14:27
think people want the interaction with another human
Greg Dahlen
08 Oct 2020 14:25
Don't know if robots can do the tiny changes in hand movement that make a good massage
Elle
24 Mar 2020 16:16
Robots could absolutely do this job. It would feel the same as regular fingers, pressure could be adjusted by voice requests, and as an added bonus it could likely analyze data while performing the massage to make medical recommendations such as how someone should stretch, moles they should have checked, or other health analysis to check for various conditions.
Phil (Low)
12 Feb 2020 20:23
The human body works off of emotion and continual feedback to shape it. Even if a machine were to precisely target muscle tension and release it, it does not account for the mind-body influence. Maybe in the far future a direct electric connection to the brain might be possible, but not in the next 20 years. Even then, a robot does not offer the social support that is instrumental in the body's reaction.
Monica League
02 Aug 2019 09:17
Massage therapies work is about human touch. Its make you feel more comfortable. Am not in the favor of robotics touch as its make your body more tired. Robots don't have feeling and they don't know anything about human touch.
Sarah (No chance)
02 Jul 2019 03:00
Massage therapy would never be done by robots. So this job should never be taken over by robots or artificial intelligence.
Vernon Burgess
08 May 2019 16:02
No robot will understand how to rehabilitate muscles, tendons, connective tissues, mitigate injuries. No way a robot will ever achieve that.
Tony Giglio
09 May 2019 17:55
I disagree, they can learn ANYTHING.... they are already making cancer surgeries instead of surgeons and have better ways to indentify cancers.... and this is just the beginning...
Nohar (No chance)
22 Sep 2021 11:03
You compare surgeries to massage? They are way too different! A massage, it's not only pressures, manipulations and stretching, it's also human contact, psychology and trusting someone. A robot malfunctioning could harm, an ill therapist, it's resting on a bed.
Mike
30 Mar 2019 20:59
Robotic massage will have some niches. We already have massage chairs of varying levels of sophistication, but they lack the human touch, the skin on skin contact that can also release endorphins and satisfy a primal urge to be groomed.
Aleksi Korhonen
20 Mar 2019 19:13
There will always be demand for massage therapists and sex workers etc. You can't make skin-to-skin contact and pheromones artificially.
Matthew Watson
19 Mar 2019 04:33
This occupation requires the human touch. A person would have to help others relax. While some tasks can be automated. Most of it will require someone to do the work
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Job description

Perform therapeutic massages of soft tissues and joints. May assist in the assessment of range of motion and muscle strength, or propose client therapy plans.

O*NET-SOC code: 31-9011.00