CareerCast.com has an annual ranking of 200 best and worst jobs for 2013 (here) and Reporter takes the bottom spot over last years Lumberjack. Ouch. Maybe we will see Discovery and History channels making a new reality series around reporter like the other worst job staples of Lumberjack, Commercial Fisherman and Mining. Of course rounding out the bottom 20 below Dishwasher but above Corrections Officer is Photojournalist at number 188, so I guess photographers are the best in the newsroom. In the catch-all category of Photographer, which usually includes heavy weighting on positions like cruise ship and theme park photographer, the ranking is 172 just below construction worker but with a positive job growth outlook. Strangely, their description of photographer reads: “Uses shutter-operated cameras and photographic emulsions to visually portray a variety of subjects.”

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17 Comments

  1. This sounds like bull. I wouldn’t put any stock into this kind of crap.

      • I read that. Nowhere does it rate how people in the field enjoying the actual work. One might think that’s important when evaluating a job.

        Also, there are some strange subjective judgements built into the model. For example a job looses point because of public contact and because it’s competitive. Two things that some people thrive on.

        I would re-write the title of the report to:
        200 jobs ranked by how similar they are to being an actuary

  2. How did artist’s agent NOT make the Top 10 list for Best Jobs? We get to make a living representing some of the best and brightest assignment photographers in the US, travel to great cities, work with some of the most creative people in advertising, and have fun at the same time!

    But then again, I also enjoyed being a Busboy.

    MW

  3. um, actuarial science and dental hygienist make the top 10- ? Yes I’d love to sign up for a lifetime of crunching meaningless data sets and staring into smelly mouths.

    • You have to look at the criteria they used to rank these. Job availability and low stress are probably why those two ranked so high. And they pay well.

      • How, exactly, is being a photographer as stressful as being an air traffic controller?

        We aren’t exactly landing planes here.

        • Comparisons are odious but I can think of a few parallels between air traffic control and being an assignment photographer. For instance, unlike many jobs, failure is not an option. As well, everything is always fluid and it’s necessary to keep many balls in the air at once. Plus, in these days of budget sequestering, you’re never sure what or when your next paycheque might come or be.

          It goes without saying that rarely do photographers hold lives in their hands, but if looked at tangentially, being a photographer does have some stress attached. Also, maybe, more joy than many jobs. Most folks these days, they go home and the kids ask, “What did you do today?” and the answer is, “Well, son, I entered data”. Photographers, when asked that can say, ” Look what I made today”.

  4. i love pakistan

  5. I hate how “photographer” is never broken down further into all the different varieties you could be. $29K? I don’t know of any successful commercial photographers making that little. I assume it’s all the low end portrait studios at places like department stores that really drag the average down. I know photographer making well over $29K on just their stock portfolios.

    • Successful commercial photographers are probably 1 in 1000 of all “photographers”. How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 12. 1 to change it and 11 to say: “I could have done that!”

      • True, it’s a much smaller group of people. I’m sure if you isolate weddings, the average would be higher.

    • They did have a separate listing for photojournalists. They are listed as earning $54,112.00, but sadly that doesn’t compensate for other factors that dropped them down to #188 — just below dishwasher.

  7. Apparently they haven’t read the studies that conclude sitting in a chair all day is as bad for your heart as smoking. The rankings even treat physical activity on the job as a negative, when in fact some amount throughout the day is ideal. With such ill-conceived notions like that, the whole thing smells pretty bogus.

  9. Joke… I make that much in a day!

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