Hiring/North Carolina/Occupational Therapists
Occupational Therapists hiring difficulty in Raleigh, NC
The public market difficulty score for Occupational Therapists in Raleigh, NC is 4.2 out of 10, in the elevated band. National hiring demand for the occupation is weighed against local pay and local supply. BLS projects 10.0 thousand openings a year for this occupation on a 169.6 thousand employment base in 2025, or 5.9 percent, and employment growth of 14.8 percent from 2025 to 2035. Those two national figures are the same in every metro for this occupation. Metro median pay is $84,080 a year, under both the North Carolina median of $92,940 and the U.S. median of $100,330 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). This metro has fewer of these workers than the national mix. The location quotient is 0.87 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). OEWS counts 0.911 of these jobs per 1,000 jobs in the metro. That count is shown here and is not a score input. In North Carolina, the December 2025 job openings rate for all industries, statewide, was 4.0%, near the U.S. rate of 4.0% that same month. The statewide hiring pace was 40.1 days, longer than the U.S. pace of 37.8 days (BLS JOLTS, total nonfarm). OEWS counts 680 jobs in this occupation in the metro (May 2025). No workplace count is shown for Raleigh. The provider-registry extract was built from Oklahoma and Texas city queries and stops at those metros. This set of 80 metros places Raleigh at rank 49 for healthcare employment in practitioner and support occupations.
Demand from national projections, the local pay premium, and a supply modifier. How this score is built
Key numbers
JOLTS on this page is a statewide, all-industry figure. It is the same number for every role in North Carolina. It is a December 2025 print, matched to the U.S. total-nonfarm print for that month.
Annual pay
Metro employment 680 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Location quotient 0.87. Jobs per 1,000 in the metro: 0.911. Metro area: Raleigh-Cary, NC.
| Percentile | Metro | NC | U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25th | $74,910 | $77,510 | $82,510 |
| Median | $84,080 | $92,940 | $100,330 |
| 75th | $106,650 | $104,820 | $116,670 |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Unpublished cells stay blank here.
Score components
| Component | Weight | Input | Score | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Projected openings | 19.6% | 5.9% | 5.8 | Annual projected openings divided by 2025 employment, 10.0 thousand openings on a 169.6 thousand base. BLS Employment Projections, 2025–2035. Higher rate, higher component. Scaled across the 20 occupations on this grid that have a projection. |
| Projected growth | 23.9% | 14.8% | 7.6 | Percent change in employment from 2025 to 2035. Same national figure in every metro. Higher growth, higher component. |
| Pay versus U.S. median | 43.5% | 0.84× | 0.7 | Metro median $84,080 divided by the U.S. median $100,330 for this occupation. Higher ratio, higher component. Ranked among the 1,733 scored pages. |
| Location quotient | 8.7% | 0.87 | 7.1 | Fewer of these workers than the national mix. BLS OEWS, May 2025. Lower quotient, higher component, and only as a modifier. Ranked among the 1,733 scored pages. |
| Statewide labor market | 4.3% | 4.0% · 40.1 days | 6.5 | Mean of two ranks among 51 states and DC: the December 2025 total-nonfarm openings rate (component 5.1) and the hiring pace (component 7.8). Same number for every role in North Carolina. |
Shown score 4.2 is the weighted average, rounded half up to one decimal. When this occupation is not a primary-care, dental, or mental-health match, the shortage weight is left out and the other weights are scaled to 100 percent. Full method
Closest metros for Occupational Therapists
Straight-line miles between principal-city coordinates in the Census 2024 Gazetteer place file used by this site.
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