Healthcare reigned supreme as the top category for jobs and careers, according to a survey released by U.S. News & World Report Tuesday morning.
The report analyzed jobs by growth potential, work-life balance, safety, employment rate and median salary.
Among individual jobs, nurse practitioners finished in first place, recording a median salary of $121,610 and an unemployment rate of 0.6%.
The publication stated that nurse practitioners often first work as registered nurses, (which ranked in fiftieth place on the list), attain a master’s degree and do work that is similar to a physician. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2032, 118,600 jobs will open up in total.
The top five healthcare jobs were nurse practitioners, physician assistant, speech language pathologist, occupational therapist and veterinarian. The survey concluded that the increased demand for healthcare services and support in that field elevated these roles on the list.
“Health care workers are critical to our overall well-being,” said Erika Giovanetti, money expert at U.S. News, in a statement. “Nurse practitioner rose to the No. 1 spot as this year’s best job. The 10-year outlook for the occupation is strong with one in three of the top 100 jobs being in health care – an increase from one in four in the 2023 rankings. Future growth and a high median salary make this career sector appealing as well.”
Not only was nurse practitioner listed as the overall best job and best healthcare job of 2024, it topped the best science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) job, too.
In fifth place was physician assistant, followed by medical and health services manager in the sixth slot. Both of these jobs also finished in the top five spots for best STEM job.
Other health-related roles in the top 25 spots were speech language pathologist (10), genetic counselor (14), orthotist and prosthetist (16), occupational therapist (19), veterinarian (20), industrial psychologist (22), dental hygienist (24) and nurse anesthetist (25).
Overall, there were 37 healthcare and healthcare support jobs listed in the top 100.
Of note, marketing manager was ranked as the eleventh best job and market research analyst was ranked at 27.
To read a January 2024 article about 66% of healthcare workers living paycheck-to-paycheck, click here.
