Respiratory Therapists assess, treat, and care for patients with breathing disorders. They assume primary responsibility for all respiratory care modalities, including the supervision of respiratory therapy technicians. They also initiate and conduct therapeutic procedures, maintain patient records, and select, assemble, check, and operate equipment.

Main Tasks

Respiratory Therapists' main tasks include providing respiratory treatment and care to patients, and providing assistance with the use and maintenance of breathing apparatus.

This graph shows the number of persons employed in this occupation from 2015 to 2019.

This chart includes two measures of average (median and mean) weekly wage for this occupation, as well as the 25th and 75th percentile. These latter two figures represent the wages that the top 75 per cent and the top 25 per cent of employees can expect to earn equal to or more than, respectively.

60%
of people employed as Respiratory Therapists areFemale.

35hours
is theAverage working Hoursper week for Respiratory Therapists.

52%
of Respiratory Therapists are employedFull-Time.

40
years old is theAverage Agefor Respiratory Therapists.

Date source: ABS Labour Force Survey microdata, NSC Analysis.

This infographic shows the demographic characteristics of persons employed in this occupation. It shows the average age of all workers, the average hours worked per week, the percentage that work full time, and the percentage of the workforce that is female. 

This chart shows the proportion of workers employed in this occupation by their highest qualification level. As these are emerging occupations, the links between qualification level and employment are not always clear cut, explaining why some occupations have a mix of employees with higher education qualifications and some employees have no post-school qualifications.

These skills are those most frequently mentioned in Australian job advertisements for this occupation – they do not represent the full set of skills or qualifications required to undertake this role, or the most important skills. Sometimes, skills that are critical to perform a role are not expressed in a job ad as they are considered common knowledge, or a qualification is used as a proxy for these skills.