Career “Best Bets”

When I worked for JIST Publishing, one of the more popular books I updated every few years was Best Jobs for the 21^st Century. I say that I updated it rather than wrote it, because the idea for the book was originated by Mike Farr and Laverne Ludden, and my task was to update it with the latest career information from the U.S. Department of Labor. I believe that what made the book popular was the lists of “best jobs.” Now that the book is no longer being updated, I thought it would be useful to recreate the book’s central list using the latest labor market information.

First, for those who have never read any of the books in the “Best Jobs” series, I should explain the rationale for the list. It is based on three facts about the occupations: the median annual earnings (half earn more, half earn less); the percentage growth projected for the period 2016–2026; and the average annual job openings (both growth and replacement) projected for the same time period.

These measures are useful in part simply because they are available in quantitative form. But they also are useful because one of the chief benefits that people expect to get from their work is income, and most people consider that more income is better. Many other satisfactions of work are harder to quantify than pay. As for the other two measures--job growth and job openings--the only way you will get any of the satisfactions of work is by being hired, so a good job outlook is a major consideration.

You may wonder, however, why I use two measures of job outlook: growth and openings. Consider two occupations, Financial Managers and Cartographers and Photogrammetrists. Both of these are projected to experience job growth of 19 percent, which is a very respectable rate. However, only 120 annual job openings are projected for Cartographers and Photogrammetrists because it is a tiny occupation, whereas 5,680 annual job openings are projected for Financial Managers. Or consider Cashiers, which is actually expected to shrink by 1 percent over the projection period, but it is such a large occupation that it is projected to create 65,390 job openings each year because of turnover.

Ideally, you’d want to aim for an occupation that not only is growing but also is creating lots of job openings and, best of all, additionally pays very well. That’s what this “best bets” list aims to show you.

To create the list, I rank-ordered the occupations by their median income according to the most recently available estimates (May 2016). Then I rank-ordered them two more times—by job growth and by job openings. I summed the three scores and then sorted the list so that the occupations with the best overall scores were highest.  Finally, I limited the list to the top 100 of the 733 occupations that I started with. (I had to eliminate some careers in the performing arts, such as Actors, because their earnings are so variable that no estimates of their average annual earnings are available.)

Understand that a difference of a few positions on the list does not mean that one occupation is a much better bet than another. The differences are often slight, and although the figures are the best available, they are national averages. Pay or job outlook in your region or community is likely to be somewhat better or worse. And don’t forget that a job is not a good bet for you, no matter what its potential is, if you lack the interest or ability to get through the preparation process. Many of the occupations near the top of the list require a bachelor’s degree or higher, and some require considerable experience in a related job.

Given these caveats, here are the “best bets” according to the latest data from the Department of Labor:

Rank	Occupation Name	Median Earnings	Growth	Average Annual Openings
1	General and Operations Managers	$99,310	9.0%	21,080
2	Financial Managers	$121,750	19.0%	5,680
3	Managers, All Other	$104,970	8.0%	7,870
4	Lawyers	$118,160	9.0%	4,190
5	Computer and Information Systems Managers	$135,800	12.0%	3,250
6	Sales Managers	$117,960	7.0%	3,620
7	Management Analysts	$81,330	12.0%	8,130
8	Medical and Health Services Managers	$96,540	20.0%	3,640
9	Marketing Managers	$131,180	10.0%	2,130
10	Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary	$99,360	26.0%	2,580
11	Registered Nurses	$68,450	15.0%	20,360
12	Chief Executives	$181,210	-3.0%	2,010
13	Construction Managers	$89,300	11.0%	3,340
14	Accountants and Auditors	$68,150	10.0%	14,180
15	Business Operations Specialists, All Other	$69,040	9.0%	10,420
16	Personal Financial Advisors	$90,530	14.0%	2,540
17	Nurse Practitioners	$100,910	36.0%	1,440
18	Pharmacists	$122,230	6.0%	1,530
19	Architectural and Engineering Managers	$134,730	5.0%	1,360
20	Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing	$78,980	5.0%	3,720
21	Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary School	$92,510	8.0%	2,120
22	Civil Engineers	$83,540	11.0%	2,590
23	Financial and Investment Analysts	$81,760	11.0%	2,900
24	Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers	$66,360	7.0%	8,480
25	Physician Assistants	$101,480	37.0%	1,060
26	First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers	$73,150	6.0%	3,980
27	Physical Therapists	$85,400	25.0%	1,680
28	Human Resources Managers	$106,910	9.0%	1,240
29	Mechanical Engineers	$84,190	9.0%	2,120
30	Industrial Engineers	$84,310	10.0%	1,970
31	Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists	$62,560	23.0%	7,670
32	Education Administrators, Postsecondary	$90,760	10.0%	1,570
33	Electrical Engineers	$94,210	9.0%	1,390
34	First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers	$62,980	13.0%	6,850
35	Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers	$127,820	3.0%	810
36	Dentists, General	$153,900	17.0%	610
37	Industrial Production Managers	$97,140	0.0%	1,170
38	Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents	$67,310	6.0%	3,800
39	Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing	$57,140	6.0%	15,910
40	Engineers, All Other	$97,300	6.0%	950
41	First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers	$63,540	7.0%	4,340
42	Electronics Engineers, Except Computer	$99,210	4.0%	920
43	Sales Engineers	$100,000	7.0%	830
44	Natural Sciences Managers	$119,850	10.0%	520
45	Purchasing Managers	$111,590	6.0%	630
46	Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists	$80,530	13.0%	1,210
47	Nurse Anesthetists	$160,270	16.0%	280
48	Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education	$58,030	8.0%	7,950
49	Operations Research Analysts	$79,200	27.0%	1,070
50	Computer Hardware Engineers	$115,080	5.0%	510
51	Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education	$55,800	7.0%	11,280
52	Petroleum Engineers	$128,230	15.0%	280
53	Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers	$89,190	7.0%	970
54	Occupational Therapists	$81,910	21.0%	970
55	Human Resources Specialists	$59,180	7.0%	5,760
56	Aerospace Engineers	$109,650	6.0%	460
57	Compliance Officers	$66,540	8.0%	2,590
58	Loan Officers	$63,650	11.0%	3,050
59	Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officers	$59,680	7.0%	4,950
60	Logisticians	$74,170	7.0%	1,560
61	Art Directors	$89,820	7.0%	800
62	First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Workers	$54,340	3.0%	15,300
63	Orthodontists	$999,999	17.0%	30
64	Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons	$999,999	16.0%	30
65	Business Teachers, Postsecondary	$77,490	18.0%	1,040
66	Training and Development Managers	$105,830	10.0%	350
67	Air Traffic Controllers	$122,410	4.0%	240
68	Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary	$97,530	15.0%	450
69	Dentists, All Other Specialists	$173,000	12.0%	30
70	First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers	$57,780	0.0%	5,950
71	Physicists	$115,870	15.0%	170
72	Prosthodontists	$126,050	22.0%	-
73	Optometrists	$106,140	17.0%	200
74	Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates	$125,880	6.0%	140
75	Law Teachers, Postsecondary	$111,210	12.0%	190
76	Actuaries	$100,610	22.0%	210
77	Producers and Directors	$70,950	12.0%	1,400
78	Podiatrists	$124,830	10.0%	70
79	Advertising and Promotions Managers	$100,810	6.0%	340
80	Speech-Language Pathologists	$74,680	18.0%	1,030
81	First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives	$84,840	7.0%	710
82	Mathematicians	$105,810	29.0%	30
83	Postsecondary Teachers, All Other	$64,400	9.0%	2,070
84	Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education	$56,720	8.0%	5,050
85	Electricians	$52,720	9.0%	8,210
86	Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators	$63,680	-1.0%	2,450
87	Compensation and Benefits Managers	$116,240	5.0%	120
88	Veterinarians	$88,770	18.0%	450
89	Architects, Except Landscape and Naval	$76,930	4.0%	970
90	Cost Estimators	$61,790	11.0%	2,440
91	Chemical Engineers	$98,340	8.0%	240
92	Economists	$101,050	6.0%	160
93	Statisticians	$80,500	33.0%	440
94	Financial Specialists, All Other	$69,470	9.0%	1,290
95	Training and Development Specialists	$59,020	11.0%	3,170
96	Nuclear Engineers	$102,220	4.0%	140
97	Nurse Midwives	$99,770	20.0%	50
98	Political Scientists	$114,290	1.0%	70
99	Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers	$89,780	14.0%	350
100	Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm	$63,300	-6.0%	2,380