Guest Post by Catey Hill
If you want the best job in America, you’ll have to endure halitosis, blood, and most definitely drool.
Dentist is the No. 1 job for 2017, according to data released Wednesday by U.S. News and World Report. It scores points for high pay (median salary $152,700), low unemployment (0.1%) and solid work-life balance. That’s compared to a median salary of about $52,000 across all jobs in the U.S.; the current unemployment rate is 4.7%.
The media organization looked at hiring demand, salary, employment rate, 10-year growth, future prospects, stress levels and work-life balance to determine these rankings.
Health-care jobs dominated this list, with nurse practitioner coming in at No. 2 and physician assistant at No. 3. Among the reasons: They require a “human element, so they can’t be exported or entirely replaced by robots” — at least, not yet — low unemployment, continued job growth in the sector and often high salaries, said Susannah Snider, the personal finance editor at U.S. News.
Of course, health-care jobs aren’t for everyone: You may have to deal with bodily fluids and be on your feet for long periods, for example. And some health-care jobs pay better than others: A dental assistant, for example, only makes about $36,000 a year, but has lots of job options (employment in the sector will grow 18% through 2024, which is “much faster than average.” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Here are the 10 ‘best’ jobs in America (and the median salary for each):
1. Dentist: $152,700
2. Nurse practitioner: $98,190
3. Physician assistant: $98,180
4. Statistician: $80,110
5. Orthodontist: $187,200
6. Nurse anesthetist: $157,140
7. Pediatrician: $170,300
8. Computer systems analyst: $85,800
9. Obstetrician and gynecologist: $187,200
10. Oral and maxillofacial surgeon: $187,200
You can find the full list here.
Of course, plenty of jobs that pay less well than these are still rewarding to those who do them. Marriage and family therapists make less than $50,000 a year, on average, but land on this list, as do opticians.
NOBODY talks about the dental insurance scam. Free cleanings. For all else it’s really just a discount card. The jawbreakers charge whatever traffic will bear. One more example of strip mining the middle class.
Go to dental school. Open up your own shop with more reasonable prices.
Kind of a coincidence, as I had a cleaning just today. I was thinking “this kind of job is at least somewhat secure—at least they can’t outsource it or automate it.”
I can’t believe “Construction Superintendent” didn’t make the list.
Good pay, all the hours you want, subcontractors who nod their head, “Yes, Yes” but in their hearts mean, “Not on your fucking life, pinche gringo.”
Not to mention the micro-managing bosses, never-ending reports, an impossible schedule, and a budget designed for half the job you’re actually building, just so you could get the job.
Surely a job like that would be in the Top Ten!!
Notice most do NOT take care of their teeth.Then complain when they get the dentist bill.
I understand high class D.C. escorts make decent money and don’t have to work too hard to do it.
A high demand occupation too.
“…and don’t have to work too hard to do it.”
I beg to differ; you would need extraordinary acting skills. Can you imagine how difficult it must be to appear to enjoy giving McCain a knob-job? Oscar-worthy stuff, that.
rdawg, you would win an academy award, I’m sure.
maybe even get a ‘standing ovation’
Now when you mention DC escorts you’re talking about callgirls and not the whores in government I presume.
Cause I love callgirls and hate politician/whores.
It appears that dentists and their practice of medicine have not received the attention of the political class to the extent that other medical professionals have, so yes, those guys, relatively speaking, are in a much better place. For example, no inroads have been made by dental hygienists for a practice similar to the nurse practitioner. No alternative to the traditional offer of dental services exists. So, maybe this is a contributing factor for those guys being number one on the list.
I cannot magine how horrble it would be to spend my working life working on diseased teeth 8 or 10 hours a day for 40 years.
That has to define hell. Fuck that.
Although anecdotal, my dentist has said their lot suffer greater than average depression & suicide rates, at least the non-masochistic practitioners anyway; maybe it’s all the pain they dispense daily upon their patients? Dentists are fortunate in that they don’t fall under the thumbscrews of Affordable (Ha!) Care Act bureaucrats but no so lucky as it’s a 24-carat beotch collecting fees because many patients deem dental expenses a low pay priority.
Steve Martin in “Little Shop of horrors”
I joked back then that dentists were depressed because they were always down in the mouth.
What depression? It’s like artists who are hospitalized for ‘exhaustion’.
I heard later about dentists abusing the nitrous oxide, makes sense now.
I also heard about nurses who stole their patients’ painkillers and injected themselves.
I fired my dentist over ten years ago. I was tired of his mining my mouth for dollars.
He was replaced by brushing with coconut oil, bicarbonate and hydrogen peroxide (separately). No cavities, no more peritonitis and no more nasty chemicals.
Fluoride – Filtering that out of our water for over 25 years…..
How did you get peritonitis from a dentist? Unless he drilled you from behind.
Dentist down the street from me.
Know the guy well.
Fucking loaded. Built this place solely to hold his cars. Has 3 offices, built on patients with gov’t assistance.
They all just went up for sale.
http://www.auctionsamerica.com/media/release.cfm?id=1281
When I graduated high school in 1980, I went to work for a dentist and received on-the-job training to become a dental assistant and hygienist. (That would probably be against the law today — must go to college to get trained!) Anyway, I remember him saying the last one to get paid is always the dentist. “People pay their doctor, because they’re likely to get sick within a year. They have to pay for groceries and gas at the time. If they don’t pay their utilities, they get cut off. The dentist is always last because once their tooth doesn’t hurt any more, they forget all about you.”