Ranking jobs: Truck Driver gains while Publication Editor plummets

Despite growing congestion, despite less-than-ideal rates and pay and all the other myriad problems we hear so much about as instigators toward change for the better in trucking step up and speak out via Overdrive, now for two years running the occupation of “Truck Driver” has gained in favorability rankings published at the website of the Wall Street Journal and compiled by the folks at CareerCast.com. You’ll recall I made note last year of your work’s growing favorability in the rankings, particularly when compared with those of your law enforcement counterparts out there, though the driving occupation still lagged behind such surely less-appetizing jobs as Nuclear Decontamination Technician, Sewage Plant Operator and, yes, Publication Editor.

You’ll perhaps be happy to note — you could enjoy some enhanced leverage negotiating lease or employment terms now or in the near future — that the upward favorability trend in the driver ranking has continued this year. And you’ve got me beat by a long shot. Publication Editor plummeted in the rankings to 168th from 118th, now slightly behind Janitor, behind Police Officer, and a long way behind Truck Driver, which gained significantly in the rankings to 108 (from 128) with a mean income of $38,000 or so but with off-the-charts hiring outlook as the economy improves — at least according to CareerCast.

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If you’d been thinking about a new career, meanwhile, you couldn’t do better than taking up work as an Actuary, with an income upward of $90,000 and a hiring outlook among the best in the survey. What does an actuary actuarily and actually do? Think “Big Data” — “Interprets statistics to determine probabilities of accidents, sickness, and death, and loss of property from theft and natural disasters,” says CareerCast.

Hey, that sounds like the FMCSA CSA team to me. Sheesh…

You can check out CareerCast’s full 1-200 rankings here.