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Working in wellness: Occupations with a healthy outlook

Stanislava Ilic-Godfrey and Patricia Tate | October 2022

Helping people manage their health is an important job. And according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), selected occupations that focus on supporting wellness are projected to have strong growth and many openings from 2021 to 2031—with most having wages that were higher than the median for all workers in 2021.

As the chart shows, employment in selected wellness occupations is projected to grow from about average to much faster than the 5-percent average for all occupations over the decade. Of the occupations shown, physical therapist assistants is projected to have the fastest employment growth (26 percent) from 2021 to 2031. These workers are expected to be in demand for a variety of reasons, including to help older, active patients recover from injury and to assist patients who have chronic health conditions maintain mobility.

Openings arise both from employment growth and from the need to replace workers who leave permanently, such as to retire. Exercise trainers and group fitness instructors leads occupations in the chart with an average of 65,500 openings projected each year from 2021 and 2031. But with a median annual wage of $40,700, it was the only occupation shown that had a wage below the $45,760 median for all occupations in 2021.

The education typically required to enter these occupations ranges from a high school diploma to a doctoral or professional degree. To learn more about the occupations in this chart, as well as hundreds of others, visit the Occupational Outlook Handbook. There, you can learn about what workers do, what their pay is, their occupation’s education/training requirements, their job outlook, and more.