Thursday, January 7, 2010

Newspaper Reporter: A Labor of (No) Love

Roustabout (film)Image via Wikipedia
Those of you troubled by last year's ranking of the 200 best and worst jobs in the U.S. conducted by Careercast.com that placed newspaper reporter at number 140, take heart--the 2010 survey ranks newspaper reporters at number 184.

The Careercast.com ranking is based on the five criteria of  environment, employment outlook, physical demands, and the two that sank newshounds--income and stress level.  The 2010 ranking of ink-stained wretches falls between "seamen" at #183 and stevedore at #185.  Janitors (#83) and Chauffeurs (#160) bested the descendants of Hildy Johnson. Few jobs were deemed worse than newspaper reporter, but included dairy farmers (#197) who have lost their whey, ironworkers (#198) because of their lack of mettle, and bringing up the rear, "roustabout" (#200)--the unskilled temporary laborer, not the 1964 Elvis Presley movie, which would have ranked much lower.

If you're wondering, the top five jobs in the survey were actuary, software engineer, computer systems analyst, biologist, and historian, and no one who holds these jobs can hold their liquor as well as newspaper reporters, so there.


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4 comments:

  1. Interesting that the top five jobs are primarily solitary ones. I wonder if they drink alone.

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  2. I was surprised that janitor ranked 100 jobs ahead of reporter given that nowadays, too many scribes go dumpster-diving for story ideas, and dumpsters are the custodian's domain.

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  3. Good point. Who would ever have predicted this ranking ten years ago.

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  4. I'm glad someone broke up the pity party for historians. I've always maintained that a historian who can't get hired isn't looking hard enough. Now, more than ever, it's a glamour job and if a historian isn't employed, he or she is just lazy. Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls! (For all you historians of "Laugh-In.")

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