Best Careers 2009

Oh, what a year!
Since last year's Best Careers package was published, America has elected a president and Congress with a new agenda; we've begun what experts believe to be a long-term downturn in the economy; and there's been an accelerated worldwide focus on the green economy. We made sure to incorporate these major changes into the process for selecting the Best Careers 2009.

So how did we select the Best Careers of 2009?
We scored hundreds of careers on five criteria:

1. Job outlook, which took into consideration the above three factors
2. Average job satisfaction
3. Difficulty of the required training
4. Prestige
5. Pay

Check out how the 30 Best Careers scored on each criterion.

Add and Subtract
As a result of that scoring, we removed four of the careers that were on last year's list of 31:

• Investment Banker: The financial industry collapse has decimated its job market.

• Dentist: We have received too many reports of burnout and back problems.

• Editor: Much as we like our jobs, we dropped that career because the publishing industry is consolidating and using more volunteer and low-pay freelance editors. Some editing work is even being offshored.

• Professor: Although at its best, a professorship can be a wonderful career, even many highly qualified people report being unable to land a tenure-track position. And with research-productivity requirements ratcheted up, job satisfaction often isn't what it used to be. So, we have moved Professor from a "Best Career" to Overrrated Career.

Then we added three careers:

• Health Policy Specialist. Healthcare reform is a high priority for President-elect Barack Obama and Congress. That should create many jobs in developing a plan we can all live with.

• Physical Therapist. In previous years, this career just missed inclusion because of its difficult training requirement and a job market dampened by the increased use of physical therapy assistants. But its score rose this year because two national surveys rated physical therapy as very high in job satisfaction. In addition, the job market will likely improve as aging baby boomers are ever more likely to suffer weekend-warrior injuries and worse.

• Veterinarian. In tough economic times, people seek comforts, and pets are among the most treasured. So, it's perhaps not surprising that income among small-animal veterinarians is up. And as the profile explains, veterinary medicine offers many advantages over being a physician.

Within most Best Careers profiles, we suggest one or two Smart Specialties. Some additions to this year's list reflect America's new priorities. For example, to the engineer profile, we added energy-efficiency engineer. For urban regional planner, we added transportation planner, reflecting the Obama administration's desire to spend $150 billion on infrastructure.

Beyond the 30 Best Careers of 2009
The Best Careers 2009 package goes beyond profiles of the 30 Best Careers.