A recent opinion poll has sought to learn what the worst and best jobs of 2016 were. Take a look at today’s Advisor to find out more.
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Blogger, general practice physician, CEO, and teacher were voted the best jobs in a new CareerCast opinion poll with 369 respondents. Interestingly, general practice physician and teacher also made the worst jobs list, which highlights the controversy over what people think are the best and worst jobs.
“The annual CareerCast.com Jobs Rated report, which ranks jobs based on salary, environment, outlook, and 11 stress factors, generates plenty of buzz and debate on who really has the best and worst jobs in the nation,” says Kyle Kensing, online content editor, CareerCast. “This year, we created our first survey, asking for readers’ opinions on which jobs they think are the best and worst.”
While a physician’s pay is good and saving lives is rewarding to some, others felt that the stress and being responsible for the lives of others made physician an undesirable profession. The job of teacher may be attractive to some because they have summers off and work with eager young minds, but the median annual salary for an elementary school teacher is $54,890, which is about 70% less than a physician’s $187,200 median annual salary.
Other professions voted among the worst include telemarketer, garbage collector, and assembly-line worker. Deadlines, low pay, low growth potential, and poor working conditions were the most cited factors in choosing the worst jobs.
When asked what their “dream job” would be, readers responded with CEO, photographer, veterinarian, and oddsmaker (someone who calculates and sets betting odds) as the jobs they would most like to hold. A few unlikely nominations came in—member of the Kardashian family and professional soccer player were two of the more improbable dream jobs.
As far as what readers believe constitutes a great job, pay is the number one answer. Half of respondents cited salary as the top factor in determining the best jobs. High pay correlates with the prevalence of respondents who saw CEO as a great job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CEOs earn an annual median salary of $175,110.
The CareerCast poll was not a controlled survey, and opening up responses to individual reader interpretation generated dozens of different answers across subjects. Despite the lack of scientific results, the 369 total surveys are quite illuminating.
Most of the survey respondents identified as full-time employees—approximately 64%—while 10.2% are part-timers, 3% work on a freelance or consultant basis, and 12% identified as unemployed. Of the 12% currently without jobs, 80% (or 9% in total) listed “student” as their current occupation.
Careercast Opinion Poll On Best and Worst Jobs
Most recurring best jobs:
- Blogger
- Physician (GP)
- CEO
- Teacher
- Data Scientist
- Photographer
Most recurring worst jobs:
- Telemarketer
- Physician (GP)
- Teacher
- Garbage Collector
- Assembly-Line Worker
Most recurring dream jobs:
- CEO
- Photographer
- Veterinarian
- Oddsmaker
The chart below looks at why these jobs were listed as the best or worst.
| Why the worst? | Number of respondents |
| Tight deadlines: | 103 |
| Low pay: | 74 |
| Low growth: | 55 |
| Poor working conditions: | 53 |
| Responsible for lives of others: | 37 |
| Physically demanding: | 20 |
| Dangerous: | 16 |
| Other: | 2 |
| N/A: | 9 |
| Why the best? | Number of respondents |
| High pay: | 186 |
| Environment: | 64 |
| Growth outlook: | 50 |
| Other: | 32 |
| Low stress: | 19 |
| Not physically demanding: | 14 |
| N/A: | 4 |