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Early intervention occupational therapist job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected early intervention occupational therapist job growth rate is 14% from 2018-2028.
About 18,600 new jobs for early intervention occupational therapists are projected over the next decade.
Early intervention occupational therapist salaries have increased 5% for early intervention occupational therapists in the last 5 years.
There are over 6,901 early intervention occupational therapists currently employed in the United States.
There are 75,355 active early intervention occupational therapist job openings in the US.
The average early intervention occupational therapist salary is $77,291.
Year | # Of Jobs | % Of Population |
---|---|---|
2021 | 6,901 | 0.00% |
2020 | 6,756 | 0.00% |
2019 | 6,960 | 0.00% |
2018 | 6,693 | 0.00% |
2017 | 6,542 | 0.00% |
Year | Avg. Salary | Hourly Rate | % Change |
---|---|---|---|
2025 | $77,291 | $37.16 | +1.6% |
2024 | $76,099 | $36.59 | +0.8% |
2023 | $75,490 | $36.29 | +1.3% |
2022 | $74,532 | $35.83 | +1.6% |
2021 | $73,376 | $35.28 | +2.2% |
Rank | State | Population | # of Jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Vermont | 623,657 | 183 | 29% |
2 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 201 | 27% |
3 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 459 | 24% |
4 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 290 | 22% |
5 | Kansas | 2,913,123 | 544 | 19% |
6 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 204 | 19% |
7 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 135 | 19% |
8 | Delaware | 961,939 | 175 | 18% |
9 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 157 | 18% |
10 | Indiana | 6,666,818 | 1,143 | 17% |
11 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 541 | 17% |
12 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 96 | 17% |
13 | Missouri | 6,113,532 | 971 | 16% |
14 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 899 | 16% |
15 | Maine | 1,335,907 | 218 | 16% |
16 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 1,533 | 15% |
17 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 1,257 | 15% |
18 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 1,144 | 15% |
19 | Alaska | 739,795 | 108 | 15% |
20 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 872 | 14% |
Rank | City | # of Jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. Salary |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Leominster | 2 | 5% | $83,407 |
2 | Needham | 1 | 3% | $83,659 |
3 | Malden | 1 | 2% | $83,523 |
4 | Somerville | 1 | 1% | $83,561 |
University of South Florida
University of Vermont
Northeastern State University
University of Alabama in Huntsville
Springfield College
Utah State University
Pennsylvania State University - Beaver
Courtney Gohean MS, OTR/L, CLT: Embrace Lifelong Learning: Occupational therapy is a dynamic field with continuous advancements. Stay current by attending workshops, seminars, and pursuing further certifications. This will not only enhance your skills but also keep you competitive in the job market.
Courtney Gohean MS, OTR/L, CLT: Telehealth Competence: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of telehealth. Being proficient in delivering therapy remotely is becoming a necessary skill. This includes understanding how to use telehealth platforms, ensuring patient engagement, and adapting therapeutic techniques for virtual sessions.
Courtney Gohean MS, OTR/L, CLT: Specialize: Pursue certifications in high-demand areas such as hand therapy, pediatric therapy, or geriatric care. Specializations can make you more valuable to employers and allow you to command a higher salary.
Sumer Samhoury: The best way to maximize your salary potential is to specialize and get board certified in a specific area or population and if you’re passionate about a specific area of expertise, apply for a 1 year residency program. You will learn one on one with board certified experts and save a lot of money on continuing education and be able to sit for a board certification exam by the time you finish it. You will also learn so much more in a short period of time than if you decide to take multiple continuing education courses.
Sumer Samhoury: My advice would be to find a job where there are many other therapists that can serve as mentors that you can continue to learn from. Being a new grad is challenging because you are now applying everything you learned in school in the clinic and that can be overwhelming without some guidance. It’s also best to start working in an outpatient clinic with patients with a variety of diagnoses and a diverse population to further increase your knowledge base.
Carissa Wengrovius: Stay curious and continue to review new literature as the evidence in our field grows and evolves quickly. Find a couple of strong mentors who will support you and help you build your skill set.
Nicole Scheiman DrOT, MHS, OTR/L, CLT-LANA, CES, CKTP, CEES-Advanced, CSST, CDCS, CORE: Likes: 1. Impactful Work, 2. Holistic Approach, 3. Diverse Opportunities, 4. Client-Centered Care, 5. Creative Interventions. Dislikes: 1. Administrative Burden, 2. Limited Resources, 3. High Stress Environments, 4. Complex Cases, 5. Scope of Practice.
Northeastern State University
Occupational Therapy Program
Dr. Julie Estes: -Effective communication and collaboration: OT's work not only with clients but family members, doctors, other professionals such as occupational therapy assistants, physical therapists, and insurance companies in various settings. This job requires that we collaborate with various individuals for the benefit of the clients. Being able to communicate in written and verbal format is a vital component to team success. The ability to explain medical jargon to clients so they understand and proficiently write notes regarding client intervention detailing progress can make the difference in reimbursement and client discharge plans.
-Knowing medical terminology, physical and neurological needs of clients, including protocols for specific diagnoses and treatments, helps in planning intervention while preventing further injury to our clients.
-Good observational skills include looking at clients' complete daily tasks, breaking the activity down to identify barriers, and collaborating with the client to develop an effective treatment plan to help them return to what they find meaningful is our focus.
-Though our job is hands-on, we must also have technological skills for documentation purposes (electronic medical records). With COVID-19, understanding how to see clients virtually has been a learning curve for some.
University of Alabama in Huntsville
Psychology Department
Dr. Nathan Tenhundfeld Ph.D.: Strong analytical skills are a must. This includes both logic and reasoning skills, but also data analysis skills. For many jobs, the ability to collect and scientifically evaluate data will be vital, if not an absolute necessity. Similarly, a strong understanding of experimental methods can put a candidate in a great position to be able to help a company evaluate existing programs and chart a path forward for new ones. Finally, I would say that a strong ability to write is critical. Those graduates who are able to effectively and persuasively communicate in writing are setting themselves up for success at any company and allowing the company to leverage them for increasingly important tasks.
Dr. Nathan Tenhundfeld Ph.D.: An understanding of a programming language, like Python or Javascript, can be a huge advantage in the job market. It will allow candidates to handle not only large datasets but also do rapid prototyping (in cases of UX work, for example) or even simply design a way in which to collect data for a customer. A student who knows how to code and who can apply those skills in their chosen career field is likely to differentiate themself over the competition.
Elizabeth Morgan Ph.D.: One potential outcome of the pandemic is that place may matter less as jobs are created and sustained with remote work environments. For example, it might be possible to participate in education endeavors, community mental health, human services in general, or consulting remotely, which render geography less important.
In addition, there will likely be changes in the types of jobs available to graduates in Psychology as employers are rethinking employee productivity in the wake of the coronavirus and need human resources specialists or industrial/organizational psychologists to consult on organizational change. Individuals with training and experience in delivering services remotely may find themselves able to secure some of these new positions; recent graduates will have a leg up in that regard, since they experienced training in a remote environment.
Elizabeth Morgan Ph.D.: The forced use of technology to connect with others during the pandemic will likely encourage lasting change in education, counseling and human services, business and marketing endeavors, research, and other areas where graduates in psychology end up. This will create shifts in what the jobs look like, what training is needed, and even perhaps, the mental health and well-being of workers in general. As these technological changes are introduced, new graduates will need to learn and embrace them to keep up with the trends, as well as evaluate their effectiveness.
Utah State University
Department of Speech-Language Pathology
Sonia Manuel-Dupont Ph.D.: When I review resumes, I look for life skills and transferable skills. These include skills that emerge from leadership positions, interdisciplinary teamwork, work with individuals and communities who are ethnically and linguistically different from the applicant, and extended practice with technical and professional communication.
Pennsylvania State University - Beaver
Psychology
Kevin Bennett Ph.D.: While the current job market for entry-level positions is competitive across all majors, I think the news looks good for psychology majors. Right now, there is a growing demand for psychologists across several categories. According to the American Psychology Association (APA), the most common employment areas of psychology graduates include health care and social service, education, management and business, and government. In addition, psychology graduates often possess skill sets that make them ideal candidates for many untraditional positions.
Although psychology jobs are growing at a healthy pace, that growth is not distributed evenly across all geographic regions. It is not surprising that the cities with the highest number of job ads were large metropolitan areas, including New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles. However, once the population is included as a factor in the data, the highest number of job ads are found in less populated areas, many located in the central states in the U.S. So there may actually be greater opportunities in small communities.
Another metric used to understand economic conditions is the location quotient, or LQ, score. This metric can tell us the concentration of job ads relative to the employed population of an area. A high LQ score means better job prospects. The states with the highest LQ values, according to a recent study, are Alaska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Washington, and Colorado.