MONEY and Salary.com started by analyzing government and private data on industry growth and compensation levels. But in an improving employment market in which workers are looking for more than just a paycheck, MONEY and Salary.com dug deeper, surveying 26,000 workers about their job satisfaction and grading careers based on factors such as stress level, flexibility, creativity and ease of entry into and advancement within the field.

Software engineer topped the rankings. The profession's strong growth prospects, average pay of $80,500, and potential for creativity put it at the top of the list. The technology and health-care industries account for nearly one-third of the 50 best jobs, reflecting the pace of growth in those fields and the high quality jobs available to skilled workers.

"This list captures the meaning of 'Best Jobs in America,'" said MONEY's executive editor, Craig Matters. "We not only looked at the hard numbers, but we delved into the things that make a job special."

The jobs rounding out the top 10 are as follows: No. 10, psychologist; No. 9, pharmacist; No. 8, real estate appraiser; No. 7, computer/IT analyst; No. 6, market research analyst; No. 5, physician's assistant; No. 4, human-resources manager; No. 3, financial adviser; and No. 2, college professor.

The college professor category scored particularly well in stress level, flexibility and creativity. In addition, college professors reported the lowest average number of working hours per week (30) and the highest average number of vacation days (31). Dentists reported the shortest average vacation allowance (14 days).

"While salary is one of the most important factors in determining the worth of a job, workers today are far more selective in their career choice based on the job's growth potential, advancement, stress, and flexibility than in years past," said Meredith Hanrahan, senior vice president of marketing at Salary.com.

The survey also found, in general, "that women reported more stress, less satisfaction and less flexibility in their work schedules than men," added Hanrahan. The top three categories for increased stress were too much work (28%), no room for advancement (20%) and deadlines (20%).

The Best Jobs list in MONEY's May issue, on newsstands April 24, profiles the top 10 jobs and includes a complete list of the top 50 best jobs. Statistics on more than 200 jobs are compiled on http://money.cnn.com. Local pay rates for the best jobs and thousands more can be found using Salary.com's Salary Wizard, located at http://www.salary.com.

Click here for the full story.

Methodology
To capture the range of employment opportunities available to college-educated workers, MONEY and Salary.com developed a list of about 250 jobs across 19 different industry groups. We eliminated jobs that had low growth rates, levels of employment or compensation amounts. Then we ranked the remaining jobs based on growth and average pay, as well as stress level, flexibility in work environment and hours, creativity, and ease of entry into and advancement within the field. The top-ranked are the 50 Best Jobs in America.

About MONEY
MONEY, published by Time Inc., is the nation's largest financial publication, with a circulation of 1.9 million and a total readership of more than 7 million.

About Salary.com, Inc.
Salary.com is a leading provider of on-demand compensation management solutions helping businesses and individuals manage pay and performance. Salary.com provides companies of all sizes comprehensive on-demand software applications that are tightly integrated with its own proprietary compensation data sets, thereby automating the essential elements of the compensation management process and significantly improving the effectiveness of its client’s compensation spend. For more information, visit www.salary.com.

Contact:
Jared Jost
p: (781)464-7341
press@salary.com

• Events
• Awards
• Press Release Archive
• In The News Archive