The Best Job in the U.S. Pays Over $120,000 And Has Great Work-Life Balance

The U.S. News and World Report ranked the best jobs for salary, prospects and work-life balance.

While news of layoffs may be rocking industries from tech and entertainment to construction, the overall job outlook is still quite strong (at 3.5% in December), the national unemployment rate is now at pre-pandemic levels –the lowest it’s been since 1969.

Employers across many different industries still struggle to find qualified workers and offer higher salaries and more competitive contracts in order to poach over-qualified workers from competitors.

In its annual round-up of the best jobs in the country, the U.S. News and World Report identified a role that has long been the subject of high-salary rumors. In 2023, a software engineer in the U.S. earned a median salary of $120,730. Plus, most people in these roles can stop their education at a master’s degree.

The New Best Job Looks A Lot Like The Old Best Job

Despite headlines of high-profile layoffs at companies Salesforce  (CRM) – Get Free Report, the industry-wide unemployment rate for software engineers is at just 1.2% while the market is expected to add 370,600 new positions between now and 2031.

The specificity of the skills required for some jobs on the list may make it irrelevant to many folks, but it also means engineers who are subject to lay-offs can find new roles extremely fast.

“The 10-year outlook for the occupation is strong and expected to grow at an above-average rate,” Janica Ingram, careers editor at U.S. News, said in a statement on the findings. “It is predicted to be in high demand, because of the rising number of products and services that leverage software. Low unemployment and a high median salary also contribute to the appeal of this career.”

The second best job in the U.S. was, according to the report, a nurse practitioner or a nurse with an advanced degree — the median salary is at $120,680. And 112,700 new positions are expected to be created by 2031. 

These Are Some Other High-Paying Jobs

Exacerbated by the pandemic, the dearth of medical professionals across the country is only expected to get worse in the coming decade — medical and health services managers, physician’s assistants and physical therapists all made the top six of best jobs of 2023.

Tech roles like information security analyst, IT manager and web developer all appeared among the top ten. The latter was the lowest-paid job on the list but still brings in a cushy $77,030 median.

You can see the full list of the 100 best jobs in the country here but, in general, top-ranking jobs combine both highly specialized skills and overall market outlook — an aging population and understaffing across the industry means that health-care workers are worth their weight in gold while the digitization of everything make it unlikely that those who can write code will struggle to find work despite any ebbs and flows of individual companies.

Of course, there is quite a bit of fluctuation between industries and many other jobs could be lost by an economic downturn — at the bottom of the top 100 list are jobs like political scientist and HR specialist.

“The ‘Great Resignation‘ makes it sound like you’ve resigned and are hanging around at at home in your sweats,” Svenja Gudell, the chief economist at the Recruit Holdings  (RCRRF) -owned job-searching site Indeed.com, told TheStreet in an exclusive interview in October. “I think most people saw that they are in demand and have options but we’re certainly slowing down on that.”

software
medical