2011 Jobs Rated Methodology

This is our 2011 Jobs Rated Methodology report.
See Jobs Rated Methodology for 2012

How We Determined the Top 200 Jobs of 2011

• 2011 Jobs Rated Rankings
• The 10 Best Jobs
• The 10 Worst Jobs
• The Top 200 Jobs
• 2010 Jobs Rated Methodology
• 2009 Jobs Rated Methodology

In order to quantify and rank the many different aspects of all 200 jobs listed in the 2011 Jobs Rated report, researchers reviewed various critical aspects of each profession to identify general categories that are inherent to every job: These were categorized into five "Core Criteria:"

Environment, Income, Outlook, Stress and Physical Demands

Below is an explanation of how we determined the rankings in each of these five Core Criteria. After each Core Criteria item was scored and ranked individually, we computed the Overall Rankings for each job, which are explained at the end of this methodology.

1. ENVIRONMENT

Environment Factors

Jobs Rated calculates the Environment score for each job by measuring two basic factors common to every work environment: the physical and the emotional components. Points are assigned for every adverse working condition typically encountered, so the greater number of points that a job scores, the worse the rank. Conversely, the fewer points a job gets, the better it ranks.

The following categories and points are used to rate the physical work environment:

The following categories and points are used to rate the emotional work environment:

* i.e. co-workers, customers including medical patients, outside stressful situations of all kinds, etc.

Environment Ranking System

The ranking system is designed so that the higher point totals reflect lower quality environments. After the raw scores are added together, they are mathematically adjusted to reflect average work-hours per week. This adjustment helps ensure the report recognizes jobs with excessive hours per week, and adjusts the scores of those professions accordingly. Point totals are adjusted upward on a proportional scale, depending on the number of hours each job requires.

In addition, this ranking system is designed to give approximately equal weight to the physical factors (with 50 maximum points) and emotional factors (with 41 maximum points). Because of this, a job with negative emotional conditions can easily rank just as low as one with poor physical conditions. For example, the relatively short work week for Statistician (slightly less than 45 hours) help the job score the fewest points in the Environment Rankings. With this low score of 89.520, Statistician rises to number one in the Environment Rankings. In comparison, Firefighter, with its very high scoring emotional component and grueling physical factors – including travel, confinement and very long hours – scored more than 3,300 points, the highest score, and therefore the job finished with the lowest rank in the Environment Rankings.

2. INCOME

The scores shown in the ranking tables might look like average incomes, but instead they are actually a derivative of mid-level incomes, and not the average income at all. Since all incomes shown in this table are estimates rounded to the nearest $1,000, there would be many ties if the mid-level income was the sole basis of the score. Instead, the income score was computed by adding the estimated mid-level income and the income growth potential.

Below is an explanation of growth potential, and how it is computed in the scoring system:

Growth Potential

A Software Engineer with a starting salary of $55,000 could eventually earn $132,000, increasing their annual income by $77,000, which is 140% higher than their beginning pay. The Income Growth Potential for this job, therefore, is 140%. Adding this figure (140) to Software Engineer’s listed mid-level income, $87,000, nets a score of 87,140. Because the way that this score is expressed very closely resembles an average dollar-denominated income, a dollar-sign is added to each Income score as an accommodation to those who want at-a-glance estimates of average incomes.

Using this system, the final Income score for Software Engineer is $87,140.

3. OUTLOOK

The Three Outlook Factors

The ranking system used to evaluate Outlook awards higher scores to jobs with promising futures. Lower scores indicate a poorer outlook. Our ranking system considers three factors for each occupation. These factors and the weights assigned to them in the ranking system are:

• Employment Growth:

The "mega factor" for outlook as defined here is expected employment growth through the year 2018, as forecasted by the Department of Labor. It is expressed as a percentage increase in jobs in a particular career field during the period, 2008-2018, which is the Department’s latest available estimate. The Jobs Rated ranking system simply uses this figure as a whole number rather than a percent, and adds and subtracts several numbers to it that are derived from other pieces of data; one is a score for the degree of unemployment and the other is the multiple that one can increase one’s salary. Below is more on these additional factors.

• Income Growth Potential:

This refers to how much a worker can increase his or her income. See the subsection "Growth Potential" under Income for a detailed explanation. This score for Growth potential is then added to the employment growth score.

• Unemployment:

Unemployment data reflects estimates, mainly from the Department of Labor, for the third quarter, 2010, the latest available data. Below are five ranges of unemployment that were used in the scoring. Because unemployment is obviously a negative thing, a derivative of the unemployment rate of a particular job is subtracted from the sum of Employment Growth and Income Growth Potential.

Below are the unemployment rankings. Listed after each range in parenthesis is the range of numbers that is subtracted from the sum of the Employment Growth and Income Growth Potential, depending on the degree of unemployment within each designation, which is shown at the far left of the table.

4. PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The Physical Factors

The idea of measuring work has long fascinated physicists. They have even devised formulas for it. The Department of Labor has also developed ways of measuring the physical demands of work and, in part, this was used to formulate these rankings.

One method they use is similar to that used by physicists. It relies on how much weight a person is normally required to lift on the job. Five categories are specified:

But the federal government also considers other aspects of a job's demands, such as whether the work is primarily indoors or outdoors, and whether or not it involves stooping, kneeling, climbing or balancing. Only when all these factors are considered together can the true physical demands of an occupation be determined.

The ranking system for physical demands used in this report includes many of the elements measured by the Department of Labor. However, an important criterion is added: Overtime – that is, work time in excess of eight hours daily. After all, an executive working till 10 p.m. is likely as tired when he gets home as many construction workers who quit work at 5 p.m.

The Ranking System

In order to compute the Physical Demands of a job, we awarded higher scores to jobs with greater Physical Demands and lower scores to jobs with lesser demands. We arrived at these scores by compiling data used by the U.S. Department of Labor. One point was awarded for each physical component of a job. These components include lifting, pulling, pushing, standing, walking, stooping, kneeling, crawling, climbing, crouching or reaching. We also awarded points for hazards faced, exposure to various kinds of weather, the need for stamina and the work environment.

One to five points was also added for each degree of lifting required based on the five categories previously mentioned, which range from 10 pound lifting at sedentary jobs to 100 pound lifting for very heavy work. One point was also added for each hour, or fraction thereof, that the average worker puts in that exceeds 40 hours per week. These determinations were based on U.S. Census data and sundry estimates provided by those familiar with the work habits of various professionals and tradespeople. The total number of points accumulated represents the score used to determine the rankings.

5. STRESS

The 11 Stress Factors

The amount of stress a worker experiences can be predicted, in part, by looking at the typical demands and crises inherent in his or her job. Our ranking system for stress considers 11 different job demands which can reasonably be expected to evoke stress (see list below). Each demand is assigned a range of points. A high score is awarded if a particular demand is a major part of the job, fewer points are awarded if the demand is a small part of the job, and no points are awarded if that demand is not normally required. For example, "deadlines" was one demand measured. Journalists, who often face daily deadlines, received the maximum of 9 points in this category. In contrast, barbers, who seldom face deadlines, received no points. The demands measured and the point ranges assigned to each area are as follows:

To compute a score for each occupation, points are added together for all 11 categories.

However, note that these scores reflect only a typical stress profile for any given occupation. For any individual worker, stress can vary greatly depending on the particular working conditions, his or her boss and co-workers, mental outlook and a multitude of other factors which play a part in stress.

6. OVERALL RANKINGS

Overall Rankings refer to the sum of the rankings in each of the above five Core Criteria above. In the Overall Ranking system, it is assumed that each of the five Core Criteria (Environment, Income, Outlook, Physical Demands and Stress) is equally important. Overall scores are derived by adding together the individual rank that each job has received in the five core categories. Because a high rank in an individual category means it is more desirable than a low rank, this ranking system translates to the lowest score being the most desirable. Therefore the lower the total score, the higher the Overall Ranking.

For example, the top-ranked job in the Overall Rankings in 2011 is Software Engineer. Its Environment rank is 5, its Stress rank is 15, its Physical Demands rank is 12, its Outlook rank is 5 and its Income rank is 23. Cumulatively, these ranks total 60, rendering Software Engineer with the lowest score, which makes it the top rated job for 2011. The lowest ranked job is Roustabout (an oil field worker). Its Environment rank is 194, Income is 160 and so on. Cumulatively, the ranks of Roustabout total 892, the highest score in the Overall Rankings, putting it in the basement at number 200 out of all 200 jobs measured for 2011.