CareerCast put together a list of the best and worst jobs of 2010. The best job in America is an actuary. The 17th worst job is a journalist. Something is wrong.
The survey considered five criteria — “stress, working environment,
physical demands, income and hiring outlook.” In other words, the
ranking factors in both the quality of the job and the difficulty of
obtaining the job. That makes no sense. Popular jobs will have a worse hiring outlook. But they’re often better jobs! It’s like a college ranking that finds Harvard is one
of the worst schools in America because its admissions rate is so low. Or a Yelp ranking that finds Applebee’s is one of the best restaurants in town because you never have to wait to get a table. It just does not compute.
If you want jobs that are hiring, look to health care and education.
If you want jobs that are “popular”, then be prepared to go up against a lot of applicants. Journalism would be a
good example. This list says being a photojournalist is the 12th worst job in America. That’s crazy. I’d guess the ranking algorithm punished photojournalism precisely because so many people want to do it,
which means it’s hiring outlook is poor. That doesn’t make it a bad
job. It makes it a great job that lots of people want! This is a weird list.
