WSJ list of top/worst 200 jobs -- apply to California economy? (Mendocino: lawyers, houses)

[nullgeo]

Best and Worst Jobs 2011 - The Wall Street Journal - Interactive Graphics

I am seriously amused ... WSJ list of 200 best and worst jobs.
Meteorologist is 6th best! (?????)
Philosopher is 16th best! (????????????????????????????????????????!!!!!!)
So, I am in a good position -- as I ponder deeply and constantly about the weather!

But I digress from the point on this Forum. Anyone see any good / bad news for California on the list which starts off with Software Engineer, Mathematician, Actuarial -- and on to Meterologists (again????!)-- and where we see police, fire, construction way at the low end of the list.

If any states in the union are loaded with quality inventory, by this list's benchmarks, California, Massachusetts, and Washington would have to be very high on the list -- perhaps: 1, 2, 3.

[MtnSurfer]

Interesting, this is obviously based on a nation wide rating. For California there definately are some differences.

I was a bit surprised that my field was rated #1. Although it has worked out very well for me, some struggle in SW Engineering in places where outsourcing has become more common. While on the other hand our company has continued to hire throughout the recession. So it has been very stable for the most part for us.

For other areas in CA I would say police officers and firefighters enjoy a much better standard of living than in many of the other states. And this is even taking into account layoffs which may have occured for some due to budget cuts.

One area not mentioned that should have been for CA is longshoreman. This was rated at one point as one of the most overpaid jobs in the US. And I know people who do this work in the LA area. The pay is pretty incredible. On top of that if someone gets special training like crane operation work it is even more off the charts. Probably better than doctors and lawyers in some cases. The one catch is its not easy to break into 'the brotherhood.'

I couldn't say about meteorology here as I don't know anyone in that field. But acting in CA is obviously different than in other states. Of course there are a lot of starving actors as there are musicians and artists everywhere. But the more successful are here as well along with more opportunities.

And I'm pretty sure philosopher is not that high on the 'real world' list. First of all there aren't that many jobs for philosophers. Secondly they are usually hired as university professors. And this area is highly competitive, especially for full time positions during recessionary periods such as this. There is a joke that goes something like what is the difference between a philosopher and a pizza? A pizza feeds a family of four.

Derek

[.highnlite]

It ranked Farmer at 158 and pay at 59,000 a year.

Using the word Farmer and giving it a rank is like using the word Engineer, there are at least a dozen different kinds of engineers with differing jobs and pay scales.

There are certainly more than a dozen kinds of farmers, from the guy in Iowa with 2,000 acres of corn to a 10 acre organic farm in Mendocino County, to a Georgia cattle farm, to a 200,000 acre ranch.

Actually farming especially in California is a good way to make a living.

[nullgeo]

I agree with both responses so far, from Derek and .highnlite ... I found the list comical in ways -- especially including meteorologist and philosopher! And scoffed at the placement of farmer ... like .highnlite, I think farming in California is a terrific profession with ongoing security as long as there are bellies to fill and palates to please. However, I also recognized the probable validity of the top three professions -- and further thought so with regard especially to California.

As for longshoremen, Derek ... your observations are spot on everywhere there is a port in America ... one of the all-time rackets. I have two friends in that union in Seattle -- well, one bountifully retired, young (a crane operator!), and one near so. Another we know, a good friend of my oldest son, got in at about age 22 through an uncle longshoreman in Tacoma ... son's friend owned two houses before he was 28, doesn't appear to work very hard. My son was a 'lowly' carpenter and struggling to keep working steady ... tried to get in with the longshoremen and couldn't get to first base even with friend's introduction ... when the economy tubed, friend continued to work the docks and my son is in Airborne Army to support wife and kid now.

[UB50]

There are a lot of good paying import/export jobs in Southern California. Unfortunately, some of them have extreme linguistic demands that probably can't be found in a lot of places. One logistics job I looked at wanted fluent English/Spanish/Mandarin/Korean.