Navigating the BLS | Massage School Miami

If you’re considering becoming a massage therapist, then you’ve probably also looked into the occupational data for the profession.

In the United States, official employment statistics are provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Because several numbers provided by the BLS look good on paper, many massage therapy schools will incorporate statistics into their marketing materials as a means to incite prospective students to enroll in their massage program. 

However, even if the source for the statistic is legitimate, the number cited may not give a complete picture.

For example, some states may have a lower average wage than the national average, so they will only cite the national average, but not the state average, which would be considered a more relevant number to the prospective student.

When reading marketing materials from any massage school, always be sure to double-check the sources that they cite of their information and make sure that they are not intentionally hiding anything. 

As an accredited massage therapy college, we are committed to being transparent about the tuition and fees of our massage school and other programs. However, we wanted to go the extra mile and provide prospective massage therapy students with official occupational information about the career.

While you have seen some of these figures before, we wanted to provide additional information about the predicted job market in Florida (state-level) and Miami (local-level), since the majority of our graduates find employment in Florida.

Or if the state average is low, but the particular city they are in is high, they choose to just the local numbers.

Because there is a lot false information floating on the internet, all citations in this article will come from official US government sources, specifically the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unless otherwise stated.

Massage Therapy Occupational Employment Outlook and Wages

Before committing to any educational program, you will want to make sure that the projected future of your chosen profession looks good.

Specifically, you will want to make sure that it looks good in your area or area you plan to live and work in. Acupuncture and Massage College is located in Miami, Florida. As such, special attention will be given to the State of Florida and the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division, which for the remainder of this article, I will refer to as the “Miami-area.”

The Occupational Outlook Handbook provides brief summary of some more important information and numbers for different occupation that the national level.

2016 Median Pay: The wage in dollar amount, at which 50% of workers in the same occupation earned more than that amount, and the other 50% earned less. The US median pay for all occupations  in May 2016 was $37,040 per year.

This is different than the Mean Wage which is the estimated average earnings of a given occupation. It is calculated by summing the wages of all the employees in a given occupation and then dividing the total wages by the number of employees.

The 2016 national median pay for Massage Therapists was $39,860 per year or $19.17, which is better than the US median at $37,040

Number of Jobs, 2016-The total number of jobs for the occupation in 2016. This number serves as the base for employment projections.

The number of reported massage therapist jobs in 2016 was 160,300. Florida reported having 8,220 jobs, making it the state with the second-highest employment number for massage therapists. The Miami-area reported having 960 massage therapy jobs.

Job Outlook, 2016-2026- The projected percentage change in employment for the occupation from 2016 to 2026. The national average growth rate for all occupations is 7% percent.

Jobs for Massage Therapists are projected to grow by 24% between 2016 and 2026, which is much faster than the national average. Since Florida has a nationally high-number of massage therapists, it is probable that many of those massage therapy jobs will be added here.

Between 2016 and 2026, the number of Massage Therapist jobs is expected to increase by 37,700, bringing the projected employment number for 2026 to 198,100 massage therapy jobs.

Employment Change, 2016-2026: The projected numerical change in employment for the occupation from 2016 to 2026.

Typical Entry-level Education for Massage Therapy: A post-secondary educational certificate from a state-approved massage therapy program is required before seeking employment as a massage therapist and generally requires a minimum of 500 hours of combined class and clinic hours.

These programs can usually be completed in under a year. For example, the Massage Therapy program at Acupuncture and Massage College can be completed in 8.5 months. After finishing a massage program, students will still need to pass a state licensing exam before seeking employment. If you're interested in learning more about career in massage, visit our massage school program page.