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In US News' 100 Best Jobs of 2022 list, how…

Careers In US News' 100 Best Jobs of 2022 list, how does being a lawyer stack up?

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 12, 2022, 1:08 pm CST

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Being a lawyer is a better job than being a speech-language pathologist but not quite as good as being a statistician.

That’s the conclusion of U.S. News & World Report, which rated working as a lawyer the ninth best job on its list of 100 Best Jobs of 2022.

Above the Law has a story, while a U.S. News & World Report press release is here.

U.S. News & World Report uses data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify jobs with the greatest hiring demand. Jobs are then scored on several measures, including median salary, growth potential, employment rate, stress level and work-life balance.

U.S. News & World Report ranked these jobs as the 10 best:

Information security analyst

Nurse practitioner

Physician assistant

Medical and health services manager

Software developer

Data scientist

Financial manager

Statistician

Lawyer

Speech-language pathologist

U.S. News & World Report described law as “an exciting profession” with a downside: “A lawyer’s work is often grueling, involving long hours at the office.”

The publication cited these statistics on lawyer jobs:

• The median salary was $126,930 in 2020.

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 71,500 attorney jobs will open by the year 2030, which represents about 9% employment growth.

• Upward mobility is average.

• Stress level is high.

• Flexibility is below average.

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