The Wall Street Journal reports on the best and worst jobs. The top three jobs are math-related: Mathematician, Actuary, and Statistician. The bottom three are Lumberjack, Dairy Farmer, and Taxi Driver (hi, Craig!). Best jobs are rated according to work environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, and stress.
I got curious about my own line of work. Somewhere around 1994, I decided to get out of carpentry, and move into church work; now it looks like that was a good choice. Carpenter is rated at #176 (out of 200 jobs rated); whereas Clergy is rated at #70. Better yet, Clergy is rated as the #1 most satisfying job — so while we clergy will never make as much money as the people with math degrees, on average we’ll be happier.
Hi, back.
I don’t think I’d rate it as the worst job, but it certainly is a stressful one. It is one of the lowest esteemed jobs, too. I like ministry better, too.
Hm. And “Author” is rated as #7 in satisfaction.
Pleased to see that Librarian is #43 on the first list – and since I also think of myself as a teacher, that’s #6 on the second list. But these things are all arbitrary, really, aren’t they? If the job doesn’t suit your personality and skills, you’re not going to be happy. And if you have cranky, awful coworkers (or congregation or patrons or customers), and if your boss is dreadful, you’re not going to be happy.
Abs @ 3 — To further prove your point, UU Jester (see 1 above) used to be a taxi driver, and he liked it pretty well. I liked being a carpenter, and would be pleased to go back to to carpentry, even though it’s rated #176.
Abs –
That’s why “authors” are really happy. We work alone and have no friends! Woo hoo!