---
title: "Recreation and Fitness Studies Teacher, Postsecondary"
description: "Teach courses pertaining to recreation, leisure, and fitness studies, including exercise physiology and facilities management. Includes both teachers…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreation-and-fitness-studies-teacher-postsecondary"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Recreation and Fitness Studies Teacher, Postsecondary

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-1193 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-1193.00

Teach courses pertaining to recreation, leisure, and fitness studies, including exercise physiology and facilities management. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

Also advertised as: Adjunct Professor; Assistant Professor; Associate Professor; Health and Human Performance Professor; Health and Physical Education Professor (HPE Professor); Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Professor (HPER Professor); Instructor; Kinesiology Professor.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $77,270 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $44,900 to $134,890, with the middle half between $59,990 and $101,450
- **Total US employment:** 12,630
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 40/100 — 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 12,630 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $44,900 |
| 25th | $59,990 |
| 50th (median) | $77,270 |
| 75th | $101,450 |
| 90th | $134,890 |
| Mean (average) | $86,620 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $127,780 | $115,408 | 1,950 |
| MD | $97,640 | $93,027 | 90 |
| MA | $87,960 | $83,172 | 290 |
| MI | $83,690 | $86,980 | 320 |
| WY | $83,260 | $89,825 | 30 |
| PA | $83,150 | $85,219 | 640 |
| WI | $80,500 | $85,552 | 40 |
| PR | $80,500 | No BEA price parity | 40 |
| MN | $80,410 | $81,534 | 260 |
| NY | $80,190 | $74,304 | 670 |
| CT | $79,200 | $76,440 | 190 |
| NM | $79,090 | $85,770 | 40 |
| SC | $78,800 | $84,054 | 280 |
| TX | $76,480 | $78,799 | 1,460 |
| UT | $76,350 | $77,227 | 110 |

27 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 42 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreation-and-fitness-studies-teacher-postsecondary/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/recreation-and-fitness-studies-teacher-postsecondary.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 15,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 15,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 300 jobs, or +2.2%. Slower than average: 2.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,000 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:** Doctoral or professional 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 74.2% |
| Master's Degree | 20.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 5.0% |

## What the work involves

- Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
- Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
- Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
- Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
- Participate in campus and community events.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 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.

- Instructing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Education and Training — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — 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), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 7.00 |
| I — Investigative | 4.69 |
| C — Conventional | 3.67 |
| A — Artistic | 3.36 |
| R — Realistic | 3.19 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.55 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFJ | 66.6 |
| INFJ | 65.7 |
| ENFP | 61.7 |
| ESFJ | 60.8 |
| ESFP | 60.5 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ, INFJ, ENFP.

## Related occupations

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

- [Health Specialties Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-specialties-teacher-postsecondary) — median $107,310
- [Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/family-and-consumer-sciences-teacher-postsecondary) — median $75,870
- [Education Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/education-teacher-postsecondary) — median $75,350
- [Psychology Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychology-teacher-postsecondary) — median $80,340
- [Environmental Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $94,980
- [Fitness and Wellness Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fitness-and-wellness-coordinator) — median $69,770
- [Biological Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biological-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $84,620
- [Social Work Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-work-teacher-postsecondary) — median $77,570
- [Career/Technical Education Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/career-technical-education-teacher-postsecondary) — median $63,820
- [Nursing Instructor and Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nursing-instructor-and-teacher-postsecondary) — median $80,250

## 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/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **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/recreation-and-fitness-studies-teacher-postsecondary