Occupational Therapists

SOC 29-1122 · 2024-2034

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.

How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.

The job this trains for

Typical pay in California: $127,995per year
Projected openings: 10,780
Projected change: +26.7%
Usually needs: Master's degree

Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth

The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.

Skills this work uses most

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.

Monitoring
Active Listening
Service Orientation
Reading Comprehension
Writing
Judgment and Decision Making

Pay by region

Region	Typical pay in California	Projected openings
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties)	$138,381	490
Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County)	$137,488	40
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties)	$134,277	350
Vallejo MSA (Solano County)	$133,358	70
Chico MSA (Butte County)	$132,485	50
Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)	$132,465	640
Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County)	$129,650	60
Napa MSA (Napa County)	$128,068	20
North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties)	$127,647	20
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties)	$127,267	490
North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties)	$127,052	40
San Rafael MD (Marin County)	$126,336	50
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County)	$123,179	90
Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County)	$122,799	100
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County)	$121,978	2,220
Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County)	$121,721	100
Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties)	$116,246	20
Salinas MSA (Monterey County)	$115,434	80
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County)	$115,095	860
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County)	$112,821	870
Merced MSA (Merced County)	$112,003	30
Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County)	$112,003	120
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)	$111,973	650
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County)	$110,576	140
Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties)	$110,288	170
Redding MSA (Shasta County)	$107,217	20
Visalia MSA (Tulare County)	$103,077	90
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County)	$103,005	60

Similar work

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.

The job this trains for	Typical pay in California	Projected openings	Projected change
Occupational Therapy Assistants	$83,841	6,200	+32.4%
Physical Therapists	$127,666	17,850	+26%
Physical Therapist Assistants	$85,215	18,930	+41.1%
Recreational Therapists	$100,918	1,870	+15.8%
Physicians, All Other	$289,473	9,800	+9.5%
Psychiatric Technicians	$50,516	16,680	+27.5%

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