Career
Acupuncturists
Treat patients with acupuncture.
$76,040
Median pay
+8.6%
Job growth, 2025–35
800
Openings a year
Master's degree
Typical education
6 years
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Maintain and follow standard quality, safety, environmental, and infection control policies and procedures.
- Treat patients using tools, such as needles, cups, ear balls, seeds, pellets, or nutritional supplements.
- Adhere to local, state, and federal laws, regulations, and statutes.
- 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.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on people & care, then ideas & analysis?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Maintain and follow standard quality, safety, environmental, and infection control policies and procedures.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Active Listening, Social Perceptiveness, Critical Thinking, Service Orientation.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
6 years of education after high school (master's degree), for a median of $76,040 a year and 800 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Acupuncture and Oriental MedicineCIP 51.3301
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Naturopathic Physicians
- Chiropractors$79,200 · +8.7%
- Massage Therapists$58,450 · +15.3%
- Cardiologists$496,010 · +4.8%
- General Internal Medicine Physicians$256,560 · +4.0%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.