The worst job in the world (and the best) for 2016

Wondering which gigs would be the most likely to ruin your life? The good people over at CareerCast have just published their annual ranking of the best and worst jobs to have this year. This report was just released on April 13th, 2016.

The CareerCast team ranked 200 professions according to their working environment, average salary and potential income, employment outlook, and a variety of stress factors to determine which jobs are the most and least attractive to have.

Apparently you’d be best to steer clear of working in media. Print Journalist ranks as the worst career to be in again for 2016. Traditional news media has been hit hard by changing market conditions. Broadcaster, Disk Jockey, and Advertising Sales Representative also make the top (bottom?) ten list of the worst jobs of the year. (I didn’t know we actually still had ‘disk jockeys’.)

Call it the Uber-effect: with the resulting diminished revenue and outlook, perhaps it is unsurprising that Taxi Driver also ranks as a poor choice of career path for 2016.

Here’s the complete list.

The worst jobs of 2016

    Newspaper Reporter
    Logger
    Broadcaster
    Disk Jockey
    Enlisted Military Personnel
    Pest Control Worker
    Retail Sales Person
    Advertising Sales Person
    Taxi Driver
    Fire Fighter

On the flip side, as we saw last year, many of the best jobs to have involve having advanced math skills. (Remember sitting in algebra class asking, “When am I ever going to use this?” This is when.)

The top job of 2016 for working environment, income, and outlook is Data Scientist for the second year in a row. Mathematician, Statistician, and Actuary also make the top 10. Other high ranking jobs tend to be in the technology and healthcare sectors.

Here’s the complete list.

The 10 best jobs of 2016

    Data Scientist
    Statistician
    Information Security Analyst
    Audiologist
    Diagnostic Medical Sonographer
    Mathematician
    Software Engineer
    Computer Systems Analyst
    Speech Pathologist
    Actuary

The lesson here seems to be: Stay in school. Many of the worst jobs to be in have declining revenue and outlook because technology changes have made them increasingly obsolete. The better jobs with increased opportunities and wages require more education and training to obtain. And math. Study math.

You can read the full ranking of 200 jobs and read the details of the rating methodology at CareerCast.com.

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