Physical Therapist Aides

Low pay & lowrisk
Moderate Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (5)

Lower estimated automation risk

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

Direct progression using treatment-room setup, patient mobility support, exercise routines, documentation, and therapy workflow.

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

Transfers rehabilitation support, patient handling, adaptive equipment awareness, documentation, and care-team coordination.

Home Health Aides
29% automation risk | Low Risk
Higher growth More jobs
13.4 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses patient mobility assistance, personal care, observation, infection control, and compassionate communication.

Nursing Assistants
32% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better More jobs
10.3 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Transfers patient handling, vital observation, hygiene support, infection control, and care-team reporting.

Patient Representatives
29% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better Higher growth
13.5 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Clinical familiarity, patient communication, scheduling needs, service recovery, and care navigation transfer well.

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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
4.0/10
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

42% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

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

Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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
Show 2 more strengths

Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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 25 votes

47% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 42% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Physical Therapist Aides will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

View sentiment trend

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Physical Therapist Aides was $34,520 ($17 per hour).

The median annual wage for Physical Therapist Aides was 30.3% lower 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

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Physical Therapist Aides' job openings is expected to rise 2.8% 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 44,010 people employed as 'Physical Therapist Aides' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 3 thousand people are employed as 'Physical Therapist Aides'.

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Job description

Under close supervision of a physical therapist or physical therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing the patient and the treatment area.

O*NET-SOC code: 31-2022.00