Acupuncturists
Health ScienceO*NET 29-1291.00United States
Diagnose, treat, and prevent disorders by stimulating specific acupuncture points within the body using acupuncture needles. May also use cups, nutritional supplements, therapeutic massage, acupressure, and other alternative health therapies.
- Median annual earnings
- $69,784
- Projected change
- +13.6%
- Typical education
- Master's or Professional degree
- Employment
- 19.24K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
75% of the workforce
Growing to 21.85K by 2035
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The work
What acupuncturists do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Maintain and follow standard quality, safety, environmental, and infection control policies and procedures.
- Adhere to local, state, and federal laws, regulations, and statutes.
- Treat patients using tools, such as needles, cups, ear balls, seeds, pellets, or nutritional supplements.
- Identify correct anatomical and proportional point locations based on patients' anatomy and positions, contraindications, and precautions related to treatments, such as intradermal needles, moxibustion, electricity, guasha, or bleeding.
- Develop individual treatment plans and strategies.
- Insert needles to provide acupuncture treatment.
- Evaluate treatment outcomes and recommend new or altered treatments as necessary to further promote, restore, or maintain health.
- Collect medical histories and general health and lifestyle information from patients.
- Maintain detailed and complete records of health care plans and prognoses.
- Educate patients on topics, such as meditation, ergonomics, stretching, exercise, nutrition, the healing process, breathing, or relaxation techniques.
- Assess patients' general physical appearance to make diagnoses.
- Analyze physical findings and medical histories to make diagnoses according to Oriental medicine traditions.
- Consider Western medical procedures in health assessment, health care team communication, and care referrals.
- Dispense herbal formulas and inform patients of dosages and frequencies, treatment duration, possible side effects, and drug interactions.
- Apply heat or cold therapy to patients using materials, such as heat pads, hydrocollator packs, warm compresses, cold compresses, heat lamps, or vapor coolants.
- Formulate herbal preparations to treat conditions considering herbal properties, such as taste, toxicity, effects of preparation, contraindications, and incompatibilities.
- Treat medical conditions, using techniques such as acupressure, shiatsu, or tuina.
- Apply moxibustion directly or indirectly to patients using Chinese, non-scarring, stick, or pole moxa.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $25,104
- 25th percentile
- $43,287
- 50th percentile
- $69,784
- 75th percentile
- $106,171
- 90th percentile
- $183,576
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $69,784 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+13.6%faster than average
202519,235 jobs
2035 projected21,845 jobs
2,610 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- Master's or Professional degree
- 75%
- Doctoral degree or more
- 14.3%
- Certificate
- 7.1%
- Bachelor's degree
- 3.6%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Acupuncturists516 postings
- 02Licensed Acupuncturists255 postings
- 03Acupuncture Interns93 postings
- 04Acupuncture Physicians34 postings
- 05Chiropractic Technicians15 postings
- 06Adjunct Faculties13 postings
- 07Licensed Therapists13 postings
- 08Front Desk Receptionists6 postings
- 09Therapists6 postings
- 10Dermatology Physicians/Dermatologists5 postings
- 11Pain Management Physicians5 postings
- 12Therapy Technicians5 postings
- 13Massage Therapy Instructors4 postings
- 14Academic Faculties3 postings
- 15Adjunct Faculty - Lecturers3 postings
- 16Chiropractic Assistants3 postings
- 17ENT Physicians3 postings
- 18Hematologists/Oncologists3 postings
- 19Holistic Health Practitioners3 postings
- 20Licensed Massage Therapists3 postings
Top employers
- 01ChenMed18 postings
- 02Kaiser Permanente17 postings
- 03Massachusetts College Of Pharmacy And Health Sciences15 postings
- 04American Public Human Services Association13 postings
- 05Madison Medical & Sports Rehabilitation Center12 postings
- 06Sportsmed Physical Therapy11 postings
- 07Evolve Chiropractic9 postings
- 08Florida College of Integrative Medicine9 postings
- 09The Curare Group9 postings
- 10United States Department of Veterans Affairs9 postings
- 11Mountain View Pain Specialists8 postings
- 12University of Miami8 postings
- 13CompHealth6 postings
- 14Concentra6 postings
- 15Kai Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic Hawaii6 postings
- 16Mountain View Pain Center6 postings
- 17NYU Langone Health6 postings
- 18Chung Ying Physical Therapy And Acupuncture, P.C.5 postings
- 19Double Happiness Health5 postings
- 20Lincoln Land Community College5 postings
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