Occupational Therapy Aides
Under close supervision of an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing patient and treatment room.
4,310 people do this job in the US. $39,160 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 7%
- 0%
- 93%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 8%. Today's estimate: 8%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 15 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment.Done daily by most who do it. | 16% | 1.3 h38 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Evaluate the living skills and capacities of clients with physical, developmental, or mental health disabilities.Done daily by most who do it. | 13% | 1.7 h50 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 13% | 38 min17 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 11% | 33 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Supervise patients in choosing and completing work assignments or arts and crafts projects.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 11% | 50 min25 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Instruct patients and families in work, social, and living skills, the care and use of adaptive equipment, and other skills to facilitate home and work adjustment to disability.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 4% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Manage intradepartmental infection control and equipment security.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 33 min17 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Adjust and repair assistive devices and make adaptive changes to other equipment and to environments.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).