Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — If you want to land one of the best jobs of the year, you may need to brush up on your math skills.
The top jobs of 2014 include mathematician, statistician and actuary, according to the 26th annual Jobs Rated report released by CareerCast.com. Researchers used information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and ranked 200 jobs from best to worst based on factors including stress, work environment, hiring outlook and salary.
“There’s a huge, huge range of opportunities for mathematicians,” mathematician Jessika Sobanski said in a statement. “Some can go the education route, but there's much more.”
Professions in the health care and technology fields also did well, with audiologist, dental hygienist and software engineer ranked in the top 10 best jobs. Researchers attributed the growing demand for health care professionals to the institution of the Affordable Care Act and an aging baby boom generation.
Related Story
Finding the best career path for you
Do you know what your strengths are? Do you know what makes you happy? Have you developed your skills and talents in a way that can add value?Jobs ranked at the bottom of the list had dim hiring prospects and then low salaries combined with high levels of stress for people who do find employment, researchers said.
The report deemed lumberjack as the worst job of the year because of a dangerous work environment and minimal growth potential for employees. It was followed by newspaper reporter, which has a projected job growth of -13 percent by 2022 due to the closure and consolidation of existing publications, according to the report.
However, researchers said many of the jobs in the bottom 10 are essential to society. Firefighter, corrections officer and garbage collector were all included in the team's list of the worst jobs of the year.
The complete list of rankings can be found online.
Best Jobs of 2014
- Mathematician: $101,360 median annual salary, 23 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Tenured university professor: $68,000 median annual salary, 19 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Statistician: $75,560 median annual salary, 27 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Actuary: $93,680 median annual salary, 26 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Audiologist: $69,720 median annual salary, 24 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Dental hygenist: $70,210 median annual salary, 33 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Software engineer: $93,350 median annual salary, 22 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Computer systems analyst: $79,680 median annual salary, 25 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Occupational therapist: $75,400 median annual salary, 29 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Speech pathologist: $69,870 median annual salary, 19 percent projected job growth by 2022 Worst Jobs of 2014- Lumberjack: $24,340 median annual salary, 4 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Newspaper reporter: $37,090 median annual salary, -13 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Enlisted military personnel: $28,840 median annual salary, job growth not available
- Taxi driver: $22,820 median annual salary, 16 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Broadcaster: $55,380 median annual salary, -13 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Head cook: $42,480 median annual salary, 5 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Flight attendant: $37,240 median annual salary, -7 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Garbage collector: $22,970 median annual salary, 10 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Firefighter: $45,250 median annual salary, 7 percent projected job growth by 2022
- Corrections officer: $38,970 median annual salary, 5 percent projected job growth by 2022
