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The best and worst jobs for 2011 CareerCast.com ranks the top careers of the year BY eLiZABetH BrOMstein
T
hink you have the worst job in the world? Unless you’re a roustabout, you don’t. This according to CareerCast.com, which has released its annual “Jobs Rated” list, ranking jobs from best to worst. Each year, CareerCast researchers survey jobs – from accountant to zoologist – scoring them according to five key criteria: physical demands, work environment, income, outlook and stress. Some factors remain relatively constant from year to year, but others fluctuate greatly due to changes in the job market, technological innovations or current events. Using data from government sources, trade groups and private organizations, every job receives a score and rank in each category. This year, the best job on the list is … drumroll please … software
engineer. This is followed by mathematician, actuary, statistician and computer systems analyst. Rounding out the top are: meteorologist, biologist, historian, audiologist and dental hygienist. Not surprisingly, most of the top jobs require skills in math and/or computing, as well as education and specialized training. There’s a reason to go to school, people. Software engineers are needed these days to design everything from operating systems to iPhone apps to video games. CareerCast explains that they only rank rd in terms of salary, but two emerging industries – web applications and cloud computing – helped to push the job into the No. spot, bumping actuary (someone who solves problems in the business world by analyzing and managing risk) down to No. (sorry, actuary). The demand for development of mobile applications and cloud
software has diversified the software engineering field and, apparently, “a diverse job market brings improvements in stress factors such as growth potential and competitiveness as workers become less beholden to employers or vulnerable to outsourcing.”
Each year, CareerCast researchers survey 200 jobs – from accountant to zoologist – scoring them according to five key criteria: physical demands, work environment, income, outlook and stress Right in the middle of the list, at numbers , and , are broadcast technician, teacher and surgeon, respectively. So, teaching ranks high-
er than operating, because a surgeon may make , and a teacher only ,, but the surgeon’s job is far more stressful. You get the idea. Wild-card placements one might find interesting are: philosopher at No. and parole officer at No. . Who would have thought those two would be neck and neck? For the second year in a row, the worst job on the list is roustabout (a temporary employee who performs heavy outdoor labour), thanks to “-hour shifts, exposure to the elements in hostile environments, low pay, high risk of injury and isolation from loved ones for weeks at a time – just some of the factors that combine to make roustabout the worst job of .” Case in point: an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon facility in the Gulf of Mexico last year killed roustabout workers. Also, a sevenyear suspension of offshore drilling in America’s Eastern Gulf and Atlan-
tic coastlines has worsened the hiring prospects for oil-rig roustabouts. Not everyone is hip to CareerCast’s methodology; the comments section below the list is full of angry rants calling the list a load of bull. Some of the less-offensive posts include: “So software engineer is a low-stress job with almost no physical demands? I’ll remember that the next time I pull a buddy out from sleeping under his desk in the middle of a scrum.” And: “taxi driver more stressful than an emergency medical technician? Ha ha ha, that’s the dumbest thing I have ever read.” Maybe the list is flawed, but it does, at certain points, make sense. If you’re thinking of a career change, you might want to have a look at www.careercast.com/jobs-rated before making any move. • Originally published on the Workopolis Blog at www.blog.workopolis. com.
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