---
title: "Acupuncturist"
description: "Diagnose, treat, and prevent disorders by stimulating specific acupuncture points within the body using acupuncture needles. May also use cups…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/acupuncturist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Acupuncturist

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1291 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1291.00

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.

Also advertised as: Acupuncture Doctor; Acupuncture Physician; Acupuncture Provider; Acupuncturist; Chinese Medical Doctor (Chinese MD); Chinese Medicine Doctor; Herbalist; Licensed Acupuncturist (LAC).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $76,040 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $36.56/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $38,830 to $161,470, with the middle half between $55,380 and $102,280
- **Total US employment:** 7,830
- **Typical entry education:** Master's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +8.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 43/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 7,830 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $38,830 |
| 25th | $55,380 |
| 50th (median) | $76,040 |
| 75th | $102,280 |
| 90th | $161,470 |
| Mean (average) | $87,020 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| TN | $141,430 | $153,946 | Not published by BLS |
| NJ | $125,260 | $115,123 | 240 |
| IN | $120,490 | $129,102 | 30 |
| MD | $101,650 | $96,847 | Not published by BLS |
| MA | $93,360 | $88,278 | Not published by BLS |
| MO | $89,000 | $97,999 | Not published by BLS |
| NY | $86,120 | $79,799 | 1,160 |
| AZ | $85,300 | $84,726 | 70 |
| KY | $85,130 | $94,422 | 60 |
| WI | $84,820 | $90,143 | 170 |
| WA | $83,200 | $77,748 | Not published by BLS |
| ME | $83,040 | $85,564 | Not published by BLS |
| NH | $77,470 | $74,372 | Not published by BLS |
| NC | $76,500 | $81,102 | 320 |
| CA | $75,530 | $68,217 | 2,520 |

9 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 24 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/acupuncturist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/acupuncturist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 14,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 16,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,300 jobs, or +8.6%. Much faster than average: 8.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Master's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Master's Degree | 67.9% |
| Doctoral Degree | 14.3% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 7.1% |
| First Professional Degree | 7.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 3.6% |

## What the work involves

- 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.
- 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.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Investigative (I), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.65 |
| I — Investigative | 5.49 |
| R — Realistic | 4.80 |
| C — Conventional | 3.06 |
| A — Artistic | 2.08 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.60 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 65.6 |
| ISFP | 64.6 |
| ISTJ | 60.4 |
| INFJ | 58.3 |
| ISTP | 57.3 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ISFP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Naturopathic Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/naturopathic-physician) — median $115,210
- [Chiropractor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chiropractor) — median $79,200
- [Massage Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/massage-therapist) — median $58,450
- [Cardiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiologist) — median $496,010
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-medicine-and-rehabilitation-physician) — median $265,930
- [Nurse Practitioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner) — median $132,300
- [Family Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/family-medicine-physician) — median $244,180
- [Allergist and Immunologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/allergist-and-immunologist) — median $265,930
- [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/acupuncturist