Right now, having a job, any job, is a huge priority for Americans. Mr. F related to me that he read an article about 700 people showing up for an interview for a janitor’s job. But assuming that all of our jobs don’t disappear in the next few years and we go back to being hunter-gatherers, which ones are considered the best? Sarah Needleman of the Wall Street Journal reviewed a study by CareerCast.com in which 200 professions were ranked according to five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook (I suppose that’s the biggy right now), physical demands, and stress.
Here are the top 20:
- Mathematician (Daughter Kristin, who has a bachelors degree in operations research from West Point, will like this, although she is also partial to systems engineering)
- Actuary
- Statistician (are we seeing a trend here? Beware those of you who think it’s still okay to be “bad” at math)
- Biologist
- Software engineer
- Computer systems analyst
- Historian (okay, the liberal arts finally put in an appearance!)
- Sociologist (why is this better than psychologist? Oh, maybe it’s the listening to people’s problems all day thing, which is why I’m an academician)
- Industrial designer
- Accountant
- Economist (well, maybe not right now)
- Philosopher
- Physicist
- Parole Officer
- Meteorologist (nothing like a job where you can be totally wrong every day and still get paid!)
- Medical laboratory technician
- Paralegal assistant
- Computer programmer
- Motion picture editor
- Astronomer
Where there is a top 20, inevitably there will be a bottom end of the list:
200. Lumberjack (yes, I’ve seen the ad for the TV show where all of the guys seem to be missing body parts)
199. Dairy farmer
198. Taxi driver
197. Seaman (yeah, especially with all the pirates these days)
196. EMT
195. Roofer (ours fell off a roof on another project and couldn’t work for months)
194. Garbage collector
193. Welder
192. Roustabout
191. Ironworker
190. Construction worker
189. Mail carrier (I don’t know if it’s our location, but ours seem pretty happy–fresh air, good exercise)
188. Sheet metal worker
187. Auto mechanic
186. Butcher
185. Nuclear decontamination tech (well, duh!)
184. Nurse (LN)
183. Painter
182. Child care worker
181. Firefighter
I’ve had plenty of awful jobs in my life, and there’s nothing like a bad job to encourage you to do well in school. I really like the independence and intellectual stimulation of being a professor. We had all better like what we do a lot, since it appears that retirement is going to be a thing of the past. But all work is honorable. I was impressed by the necessity of the jobs in that bottom 20. What would we do without nurses and firefighters? So I think we should all be grateful that people are willing to do those jobs for the rest of us and remember to thank them.
3 Comments
kpeters · March 14, 2009 at 4:19 pm
It is good to see that sociologists make an appearance on the list, since I am a social science major. People always seem to be putting down sociologists, but I’m glad it has a decent ranking. It is interesting that a lot of the top jobs are found in the math and science field. And then, of course it is interesting to see the bottom 20 on the list.
krusch · March 15, 2009 at 12:01 pm
It is very surprising to me to see EMT, nurse and firefighter on the bottom 20. I know EMT’s don’t make very much money, but the job can be very satisfying to those who work it, and most seem to enjoy it. Firefighters love their job, and some do make a lot of money. Many of my co-workers are EMT’s, firefighters or law enforcement, and all of them have had nothing but good things to say about their jobs except for the fact that it is hard to find a job in those categorizes. Seeing Nurses on the bottom 20 has to be the most strange to me because that is one of the largest growing field right now. Nurses are always in high demand and they get paid quite a bit relative to the amount of schooling required. Being a nurse is considered a recession proof job. I’m sure that if the economy were not in the place it is, the top 20 and bottom 20 would be different, but how different would be interesting.
Alexscharf · March 16, 2009 at 6:07 pm
A lot of the top jobs seem to require more formal education or invlovement in technical aspects. However, Parol officer in the top? And Nurse at the bottom? The bottom list seems like very specialized labor. The bottom list seem to be the people that do the dirty work, such as garbage collecting. I feel that this has been consistent throughout time. Greek Philosophers do not seem like the people that are going around the city picking up waste. They might get their white robes dirty.
SES may factor into job availability here.
The thing about jobs is, yes, there will be times when we are unhappy with the job we are in but it takes an even stronger person I beleive to find that job that is perfect and satifying to them. Whether its the money or getting to hone your skill, there are choices.
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