Careers are subjective. Teaching youngsters reading, writing and arithmetic sounds like a perfect job to some people, while others dream of spending hours performing high-stakes surgery.
Yet some career qualities are desired fairly universally. Workers tend to prefer higher salaries, ample open positions and opportunities for promotion. These are the characteristics used to make the U.S. News Best Jobs of 2018 rankings.
This article explains the methodology behind the rankings. It’s divided into two parts: how U.S. News selects jobs to profile and how those jobs are ranked against each other.
Selecting the Jobs
To identify professions for the 2018 rankings, we started with data on jobs with the largest projected number of openings from 2016 to 2026, as determined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The jobs that topped the list were then selected for the 2018 Best Jobs analysis and rankings.
Ranking the Jobs
U.S. News ranks jobs in an overall list and in 12 mutually exclusive occupational industry lists: Best Business Jobs, Best Construction Jobs, Best Creative and Media Jobs, Best Education Jobs, Best Engineering Jobs, Best Health Care Jobs, Best Health Care Support Jobs, Best Maintenance and Repair Jobs, Best Sales and Marketing Jobs, Best Science Jobs, Best Social Services Jobs and Best Technology Jobs. Careers are ranked based on our calculated overall score, which combines multiple components into a single weighted average score between 0 and 5.
The overall score is calculated from seven component measures, and for each measure, jobs receive a score between 0 and 10. Here are the component measures and their weights in computing the overall score:
About the Component Measures
1. Median salary. This is the median salary earned by someone employed in a given occupation, according to the BLS.
Why is it important?
Most people prefer higher salaries.
How is this score calculated?
We translate median salary from a dollar amount to a numerical score using the following formula: salary score = the square root of the median salary divided by 40. We set a maximum salary score of 10 points.
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2. Employment rate. The percentage of people in an occupation who are currently employed.
Why is it important?
Low unemployment rates indicate it’s easier to get a job in that field.
How is this score calculated?
We translate unemployment rates, recorded for each profession, to a 10-point scale. For example, if a job’s unemployment rate is 1 percent or less, it earned the full possible 10 points; a job with unemployment between 1 percent and 2.5 percent earned 8 points; between 2.5 and 5 percent earned 6 points; between 5 and 10 percent earned 4 points; and those jobs with unemployment higher than 10 percent earned 2 points.
3. 10-year growth volume. Growth volume, according to the BLS, is the total number of new jobs that should be created for an occupation in a 10-year span. For example, the BLS projects the U.S. will add 1,100 new orthodontist jobs between 2016 and 2026.
Why is it important?
An occupation with significant job growth is likely to have many new job opportunities in the future. This is also a crucial factor because we use the BLS’ projected growth volume to select the jobs we’ll rank each year.
How is this score calculated?
We translate job growth volumes from a number to a score of up to 10 points. Those occupations expected to grow by 150,000 openings or more received the highest score: 10. Occupations with job growth numbers between 75,000 and 149,999 earned 8 points; between 10,000 and 74,999 earned 6 points; less than 10,000 openings earned 4 points; and any occupations for which numbers were expected to decrease received 2 points.
4. 10-year growth percentage. This is an occupation’s employment percentage growth over the course of 10 years. For example, the BLS estimate of 1,100 new orthodontist jobs between 2016 and 2026 equates to 17.3 percent.
Why is it important?
The 10-year growth percentage measures how rapidly an occupation is expanding. A high growth rate indicates increased demand for this type of worker. The BLS predicts that total occupational employment is projected to increase 7.4 percent between 2016 and 2026. Those jobs with higher percentages are growing faster than average. Growth percentage is also important to our methodology, because the growth rate is used to select the jobs we’ll rank each year.
How is this score calculated?
We translate job growth percentages from a number to a score of up to 10 points. Occupations for which the projected growth rate increased by 30 percent or more earned the total possible 10 points; those for which growth increased between 20 and 29 percent earned 8 points; where growth increased between 10 and 19 percent, the job earned 6 points; and where growth increased by 9 percent or less, the job earned 4 points. Any occupations that saw growth decrease received 2 points.
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5. Future job prospects. This rating conveys the ease of landing a job in the future, based on the number of openings versus the number of job seekers. For example, the BLS predicts nurse practitioners will be in high demand, particularly in underserved communities, so this job has an excellent job prospect rating. By contrast, the BLS projects there will be more students graduating from law school each year than there are jobs available. Competition for open positions for lawyers will be intense, so this occupation received a lower job prospect rating.
Why is it important?
If you’re looking for a career whose demand is predicted to increase over the next 10 years, pursue one with a higher job prospect rating.
How is this score calculated?
We translate the BLS “descriptive rating” to a score of up to 10 points. A job that received an “excellent” prospect rating earned 10 points; a job that has a “good” rating earned 8 points; a job with a “favorable” rating earned 6 points; and an occupation with a “keen competition” rating earned a score of 4 points. Jobs for which prospects weren’t identified or for which prospects varied were considered not applicable for a prospect score by U.S. News.
6. Stress level. This rating indicates the amount of day-to-day stress someone might experience while working in an occupation.
Why is it important?
The level of stress a worker feels in his or her job can lower quality of life, worsen health and damage professional self-esteem.
How is this score calculated?
Based on interviews and extensive research, our editors assign qualitative stress-level ratings to each occupation. These ratings are intended to represent the average stress level for the occupation, and it’s important to note that stress varies significantly among individuals and their specific job circumstances.
These qualitative stress-level ratings are translated to a 10-point scale. A stress level rating of “high” translates to 2 points (the lowest score); a rating of “above average” translates to 4 points; a rating of “average” translates to 6 points; “below average” to 8 points; and “low” translates to 10 points (the highest score).
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7. Work-life balance. This rating captures how much any profession will affect lifestyle.
Why is it important?
Striking a comfortable balance between career, ambition, health, family and leisure activities can improve job performance and quality of life.
How is this score calculated?
Based on interviews and an assessment of literature, U.S. News editors assign qualitative work-life balance ratings for each occupation. Similar to stress level, work-life balance may vary significantly among individuals and with specific job circumstances.
Our qualitative work-life balance ratings are translated to scores on a 10-point scale. A rating of “high” translates to 10 points (the highest score); a rating of “above average” translates to 8 points; a rating of “average” translates to 6 points; a rating of “below average” translates to 4 points; and a rating of “low” translates to 2 points (the lowest score).
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How U.S. News Ranks the Best Jobs originally appeared on usnews.com
