Newspaper Reporter: The Worst Job for 2016
Who has the worst job – one with a low salary, poor outlook, undesirable work environment, and high stress?
Is it the person who drives a garbage truck, or a nuclear decontamination technician? It’s neither.
For the third year in a row, newspaper reporter came in dead last on CareerCast.com’s 28th annual Jobs Rated report’s 10 worst jobs list.
Logger, broadcaster, disc jockey, enlisted military, retail sales, advertising sales, taxi driver, and firefighter round out the 10 least desirable jobs for 2016.
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On the flip side, professions in mathematics top the 2016 CareerCast.com Jobs Rated report’s 10 best jobs, with data scientist coming in at number one and statistician at number two. Mathematician (#6) and actuary (#10) also require serious math skills.
To determine the 200 best and worst jobs, the Jobs Rated report analyzed each job’s environment (emotional, physical and hours worked), income (growth potential and salary), outlook, along with 11 stress factors to determine which professions are among the most and least desirable.
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“Declining employment opportunities contributed to the inclusion of many of the 10 worst careers in the 2016 Jobs Rated report,” says Kyle Kensing, online content editor, CareerCast. “Traditional news media is particularly hard hit due to newspapers folding or moving to digital-only, and waning advertising revenue.”
Employment of broadcasters is expected to decline by 9%, or 4,800 total positions, by 2024. Broadcasters seeking a job transition can parlay their skills into a career as a podcaster, online news producer, or data journalist.
Print newspaper reporters can transfer their skills to writing for online mediums, public relations, or corporate communications jobs.
CareerCast’s 10 worst jobs of 2016:
| Profession and how it fared in 2015 | Annual Median Salary | Growth Outlook (to 2024) |
| 200. Newspaper Reporter/Print (no change) | $36,390 | -9% |
| 199. Logger (no change) | $35,160 | -4% |
| 198. Broadcaster (no change) | $37,200 | -9% |
| 197. Disc Jockey (+3) | $29,010 | -11% |
| 196. Enlisted Military (+2) | $27,936 | N/A |
| 195. Pest Control Worker (-37) | $30,660 | -1% |
| 194. Retail Sales Person (-38) | $21,670 | 7% |
| 193. Advertising Sales Person (-9) | $47,890 | -3% |
| 192. Taxi Driver (+1) | $23,210 | 13% |
| 191. Firefighter (+1) | $45,970 | 5% |
CareerCast’s 10 best jobs of 2016:
| Profession and how it fared in 2015 | Annual Median Salary | Growth Outlook (to 2024) |
| 1. Data Scientist (+5) | $128,240 | 16.02% |
| 2. Statistician (+2) | $79,990 | 34% |
| 3. Info. Security Analyst (N/A) | $88,890 | 18% |
| 4. Audiologist (-2) | $73,060 | 29% |
| 5. Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (N/A) | $62,540 | 24% |
| 6. Mathematician (-3) | $103,720 | 21% |
| 7. Software Engineer (+1) | $97,990 | 17% |
| 8. Computer Systems Analyst (+1) | $82,710 | 21% |
| 9. Speech Pathologist (+2) | $71,550 | 21% |
| 10. Actuary (-9) | $96,700 | 18% |
CareerCast.com’s Jobs Rated Report utilizes a wide range of criteria such as income, outlook, environmental factors, stress and physical demands to rank 200 U.S. jobs annually. CareerCast.com, created by Adicio, is a job search portal.
Photo courtesy: CareerCast
