Career Explorer Healthcare (clinical)
Human edge, growing
Opticians, dispensing
Design, measure, fit, and adapt lenses and frames for client according to written optical prescription or specification. Assist client with inserting, removing, and caring for contact lenses. Assist client with selecting frames. Measure customer for size of eyeglasses and coordinate frames with facial and eye measurements and optical prescription. Prepare work order for optical laboratory containing instructions for grinding and mounting lenses in frames. Verify exactness of finished lens spectacles. Adjust frame and lens position to fit client. May shape or reshape frames. Includes contact lens opticians.
More resilient than most: more resilient than 69% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is moderate (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it moderate), and US jobs are projected to change by +4.2% by 2035, faster than average. The work leans on emotional intelligence and physical dexterity.
AI struggles with much of this work, and US employers are expected to hire more people into it than average.
- Median pay (2025)
- $47,260
- Job growth to 2035
- +4.2%
- Openings a year
- 5,600
- People doing it (2025)
- 74,300
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then long on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Advise others on products or services
- Perform administrative or clerical activities
- Execute financial transactions
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Fabricate medical devices
- Fit assistive devices to patients or clients
- Train others to use equipment or products
What the work looks like
- Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices.
- Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications.
- Evaluate prescriptions in conjunction with clients' vocational and avocational visual requirements.
- Recommend specific lenses, lens coatings, and frames to suit client needs.
- Assist clients in selecting frames according to style and color, and ensure that frames are coordinated with facial and eye measurements and optical prescriptions.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
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- Home health and personal care aidesHuman edge, growing, Index 99, +18.1%
Also known as: Dispensing Optician, Licensed Dispensing Optician (LDO), Licensed Optician, Optician, Certified Optician, Contact Lens Technician, Ophthalmic Dispenser, Optical Technician.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.