Occupational Therapist job description
35 verified openings in Occupational Therapist
Getting dressed, holding a fork, and getting back to a job are the outcomes occupational therapy is measured against, and the caseload includes amputation, traumatic brain injury, and post-deployment rehabilitation that plenty of veterans have been through themselves. The Army's 65B is a physical therapy specialty, and the crosswalk O*NET publishes from military occupations lists occupational therapy among its civilian matches too, because O*NET files the two therapies as close neighbors. Occupational therapy paid $100,330 at the median in May 2025, with a tenth of the profession under $71,690 and a tenth over $131,950.
Core Duties and Responsibilities
An OT tests a patient's physical and mental abilities, reads the medical data, and sets rehabilitation goals that are actually reachable, then builds the program that gets there: therapeutic activity, work and life-management skills, adaptive technique, and changes to the home or workplace itself. Therapists design or requisition splints, braces, and computer-aided adaptive equipment, coach caregivers to carry the work on after discharge, and write up progress. BLS counted 169,600 occupational therapists in 2025 and expects 15 percent growth by 2035, with roughly 10,000 openings a year. Therapy offices are the largest employer at 28 percent, hospitals take 26 percent and schools 13 percent, and injury rates run high for the occupation, mostly from lifting and moving clients and equipment.
Common Skills and Technologies
Active listening, monitoring, and service orientation come first, with instructing just behind, since much of a session is teaching. The kit is the interesting half: splints and braces made on site, computer-aided adaptive devices, and the plain objects a session runs on, puzzles, scissors, and eating utensils the therapist lays out and repairs. Software runs to pattern design for fabrication, plus the computer based training and voice recognition programs O*NET lists, used with clients rebuilding memory and sequencing, and eClinicalWorks EHR for the record.
Education, Training, and Career Path
Entry is a master's in occupational therapy, usually 2 to 3 years past a bachelor's with supervised fieldwork built in, and 86 percent of practicing OTs hold one. Every state licenses the profession. Passing the national qualifying exam earns the Occupational Therapist Registered title, and the license stays current through scheduled continuing education. Specialties grow from there, hand therapy, early intervention, pediatrics, and industrial rehabilitation consulting among the titles practitioners report.
Sources: O*NET 30.0, 29-1122.00 Occupational Therapists, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-1122.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 29-1122, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291122.htm. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/occupational-therapists.htm.