Chiropractors
29-1011.00
Bright Outlook Updated 2026

Assess, treat, and care for patients by manipulation of spine and musculoskeletal system. May provide spinal adjustment or address sacral or pelvic misalignment.

Sample of reported job titles: Chiropractic Doctor (DC), Chiropractic Neurologist, Chiropractic Physician

Occupation-Specific Information

Tasks

  • Perform a series of manual adjustments to the spine or other articulations of the body to correct the musculoskeletal system.
  • Obtain and record patients' medical histories.
  • Diagnose health problems by reviewing patients' health and medical histories, questioning, observing, and examining patients and interpreting x-rays.
  • Evaluate the functioning of the neuromuscularskeletal system and the spine using systems of chiropractic diagnosis.
  • Maintain accurate case histories of patients.
  • Consult with or refer patients to appropriate health practitioners when necessary.
  • Advise patients about recommended courses of treatment.
  • Counsel patients about nutrition, exercise, sleeping habits, stress management, or other matters.
  • Provide guidance to patients on exercises they can perform to improve mobility.
  • Analyze x-rays to locate the sources of patients' difficulties and to rule out fractures or diseases as sources of problems.
  • Take x-rays.
  • Recommend and arrange for diagnostic procedures, such as blood chemistry tests, saliva tests, x-rays, or other imaging procedures.
  • Suggest and apply the use of supports such as straps, tapes, bandages, or braces if necessary.
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Occupational Requirements

Work Activities

  • Assisting and Caring for Others — Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
  • Performing General Physical Activities — Performing general physical activities includes doing activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling materials.
  • Documenting/Recording Information — Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
  • Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards — Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
  • Making Decisions and Solving Problems — Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
  • Analyzing Data or Information — Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts.
  • Handling and Moving Objects — Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
  • Getting Information — Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
  • Performing for or Working Directly with the Public — Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests.
  • Processing Information — Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.
  • Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge — Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
  • Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events — Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
  • Judging the Qualities of Objects, Services, or People — Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.
  • Providing Consultation and Advice to Others — Providing guidance and expert advice to management or other groups on technical, systems-, or process-related topics.
  • Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
  • Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others — Translating or explaining what information means and how it can be used.
  • Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings — Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.
  • Training and Teaching Others — Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational or training programs or classes, and teaching or instructing others.
  • Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates — Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
  • Communicating with People Outside the Organization — Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the organization to customers, the public, government, and other external sources. This information can be exchanged in person, in writing, or by telephone or e-mail.
  • Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials — Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects.
  • Coaching and Developing Others — Identifying the developmental needs of others and coaching, mentoring, or otherwise helping others to improve their knowledge or skills.
  • Developing Objectives and Strategies — Establishing long-range objectives and specifying the strategies and actions to achieve them.
  • Thinking Creatively — Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
  • Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work — Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
  • Estimating the Quantifiable Characteristics of Products, Events, or Information — Estimating sizes, distances, and quantities; or determining time, costs, resources, or materials needed to perform a work activity.
  • Working with Computers — Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.

Detailed Work Activities

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Work Context

  • Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals — 99% responded “A lot of freedom.”
  • Indoors, Environmentally Controlled — 97% responded “Every day.”
  • Physical Proximity — 89% responded “Very close (near touching).”
  • Contact With Others — 74% responded “Constant contact with others.”
  • Freedom to Make Decisions — 88% responded “A lot of freedom.”
  • Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams — 89% responded “Every day.”
  • Frequency of Decision Making — 88% responded “Every day.”
  • Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
  • Deal With External Customers or the Public in General — 85% responded “Extremely important.”
  • Telephone Conversations — 49% responded “Every day.”
  • E-Mail — 70% responded “Every day.”
  • Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results — 68% responded “Very important results.”
  • Importance of Repeating Same Tasks — 46% responded “Very important.”
  • Level of Competition — 53% responded “Highly competitive.”
  • Consequence of Error — 21% responded “Very serious.”
  • Health and Safety of Other Workers — 18% responded “High responsibility.”
  • Spend Time Standing — 40% responded “More than half the time.”
  • Written Letters and Memos — 38% responded “Once a week or more but not every day.”
  • Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls — 36% responded “Continually or almost continually.”
  • Work Outcomes and Results of Other Workers — 37% responded “Very high responsibility.”
  • Spend Time Bending or Twisting Your Body — 32% responded “More than half the time.”
  • Time Pressure — 34% responded “Every day.”
  • Spend Time Making Repetitive Motions
  • Coordinate or Lead Others in Accomplishing Work Activities — 36% responded “Extremely important.”
  • Duration of Typical Work Week — 50% responded “More than 40 hours.”
  • Conflict Situations — 19% responded “Once a week or more but not every day.”

Experience Requirements

Job Zone

Title
Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Education
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Related Experience
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Job Training
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Job Zone Examples
These occupations often involve coordinating, training, supervising, or managing the activities of others to accomplish goals. Very advanced communication and organizational skills are required. Examples include pharmacists, lawyers, astronomers, biologists, clergy, physician assistants, and veterinarians.
SVP Range
(8.0 and above)

Training & Credentials

State training
Local training
Certifications
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State licenses

Apprenticeship Opportunities

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Worker Requirements

Software Skills

Hot Technologies are requirements most frequently included across all employer job postings.

Essential Skills

  • 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.
  • Speaking — Talking to others to convey information effectively.
  • Critical Thinking — Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
  • Reading Comprehension — Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
  • 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.
  • Science — Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
  • Monitoring — Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
  • Learning Strategies — Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.

Transferable Skills

  • Complex Problem Solving — Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
  • Judgment and Decision Making — Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
  • Social Perceptiveness — Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
  • Service Orientation — Actively looking for ways to help people.
  • Instructing — Teaching others how to do something.
  • Persuasion — Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
  • 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.
  • Time Management — Managing one's own time and the time of others.

Knowledge

  • Medicine and Dentistry — Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
  • Customer and Personal Service — Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
  • Biology — Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
  • Therapy and Counseling — Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
  • Administration and Management — Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
  • English Language — Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
  • Administrative — Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
  • Education and Training — Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
  • Psychology — Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
  • Sales and Marketing — Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
  • Personnel and Human Resources — Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
  • Computers and Electronics — Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
  • Law and Government — Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.

Education

How much education does a new hire need to perform a job in this occupation? Respondents said:

  • 82%
     
    Doctoral degree required
  • 8%
     
    Professional degree required
  • 7%
     
    Post-secondary certificate required

Worker Characteristics

Abilities

  • Written Comprehension — The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Deductive Reasoning — The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning — The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Oral Comprehension — The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity — The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Speech Clarity — The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Written Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Information Ordering — The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Near Vision — The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Recognition — The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Flexibility of Closure — The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Category Flexibility — The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Trunk Strength — The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness — The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Fluency of Ideas — The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Multilimb Coordination — The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Originality — The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Perceptual Speed — The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Finger Dexterity — The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Selective Attention — The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Speed of Closure — The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Static Strength — The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.

Interests

Interest code: SRI
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  • Social — Work involves helping, teaching, advising, assisting, or providing service to others. Social occupations are often associated with social, health care, personal service, teaching/education, or religious activities.
    • Health Care Service — Work involves providing health care services to individuals to include the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of diseases and other forms of illness or impairment.
    • Social Service — Work involves providing social services and assistance to improve the well-being and social and psychological functioning of children and adults.
  • Realistic — Work involves designing, building, or repairing of equipment, materials, or structures, engaging in physical activity, or working outdoors. Realistic occupations are often associated with engineering, mechanics and electronics, construction, woodworking, transportation, machine operation, agriculture, animal services, physical or manual labor, athletics, or protective services.
  • Investigative — Work involves studying and researching non-living objects, living organisms, disease or other forms of impairment, or human behavior. Investigative occupations are often associated with physical, life, medical, or social sciences, and can be found in the fields of humanities, mathematics/statistics, information technology, or health care service.
    • Health Care Service — Work involves providing health care services to individuals to include the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of diseases and other forms of illness or impairment.
    • Medical Science — Work involves studying and researching the causes, nature, effects, and treatments of disease or other forms of impairment or illness.

Work Styles

  • Empathy — A tendency to show concern for others and be sensitive to others' needs and feelings at work.
  • Cooperation — A tendency to be pleasant, helpful, and willing to assist others at work.
  • Cautiousness — A tendency to be careful, deliberate, and risk-avoidant when making work-related decisions or doing work.
  • Integrity — A tendency to be honest and ethical at work.
  • Attention to Detail — A tendency to be detail-oriented, organized, and thorough in completing work.
  • Dependability — A tendency to be reliable, responsible, and consistent in meeting work-related obligations.

Workforce Characteristics

Wages & Employment Trends

Median wages (2025)
$38.08 hourly, $79,200 annual
State wages
Local wages
Employment (2025)
61,700 employees
Projected growth (2025-2035)
Much faster than average (7% or higher)
Projected job openings (2025-2035)
2,600
State trends
Top industries (2025)

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data and 2025-2035 employment projections . “Projected growth” represents the estimated change in total employment over the projections period (2025-2035). “Projected job openings” represent openings due to growth and replacement.

Job Openings on the Web

State job openings
Local job openings

More Information

Professional Associations

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National Associations
Accreditation, Certification, & Unions