The Best Jobs In America 2011 (PHOTOS)

We've all heard the reports of the decline of American manufacturing and the erosion of jobs once-thought to be the center of our workforce. Less discussed are those fields that are now flourishing.

Careercast.com has released its latest report on the ten best jobs of 2011, which look to be very promising for the more mathematically and technically inclined job searchers among us. Or, as Careercast puts it, in 2010, "The geeks strike back."

The rankings were based on survey results evaluating careers on categories like work environment, physical demands, outlook, income and stress. Which jobs topped the list? Check them out below:

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#10 Dental Hygienist, Average Salary $87,000

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Tenth best job in CareerCast.com's rankings, Dental Hygienist moved up one spot from last year's report.

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Tenth best job in CareerCast.com's rankings, Dental Hygienist moved up one spot from last year's report.

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Comments

[Chuck Stone]

10:37 PM on 03/01/2011

The best job for 2011 is by far hotel sales. Earn about 50K entry level, sell Hilton, Holiday Inn, Embassy Suites, Marriot, and others to meeting planners, event organizers, and travel planners.

Advance to 75 100K or more in 5 years or less. Rapid advancement, and you can even land the GM job. the best place to get started is ecornell.com or www.aprinda.com

[paintitblack]

04:34 PM on 02/16/2011

That's all well and good, but by the time people become certified to work in some of these fields, there will be an overflow of candidates and a shortage of those jobs.

[gtoddyt5]

04:22 PM on 02/02/2011

The image that they used for a software engineer would be appropriate for a network engineer. Nevertheless, I am happy because I am a network engineer. That is some sloppy cabling!

[bridge to somewhere]

03:47 PM on 02/02/2011

That systems analyst image is classic. Nothing like a bank of off-white CRTs to liven up the office.

What are those things on the wall....clocks?

[chiara0]

06:56 PM on 01/22/2011

Best jobs? Based on what criteria? What if you are not challenged by these jobs, how can they be the best? And yes, what about doctors, leaders of all kinds, artists, etc. where there is stress and challenge and growth required of you, not the routine, different day same garbage type job. Or maybe it's just me.

[Ace of Spades]

01:31 AM on 01/13/2011

Wow, my job is the actual #1 best job?

Cool.

[SmileyBrooks]

12:24 PM on 01/12/2011

Not sure where these wages are average, but $85,000 to totally blow 2 (back to back) storms, it must be a good job. Can't imagine being kept on with such a record, but in our little slice of heaven, meteorologists are comedians, not scientists.

[NMBioguy]

10:32 PM on 01/11/2011

In 30 years as a biologist, I never came CLOSE to making that much!

[HAlexandria]

11:15 PM on 01/22/2011

Specialities matter, molecular genetics is much more lucrative than botany, for example. I know a couple of newly minted PhDs whose starting salaries were in the upper 60s + bonuses + befits.

[xilduq]

09:01 PM on 01/11/2011

software engineer may be #1 for 2011 (i'm not sold on that idea), but you better believe the field is being outsourced to india (and probably china next) as fast as possible.

[Twinings]

07:25 PM on 01/11/2011

At what level of qualifications are they claiming biologist and historian are the best jobs? To get a decent salary in either requires a doctorate. A doctorate requires at least 10 years of study at great cost then an average post-doc salary of 35K for another 3 years. Considering you won't get a decent salary until your mid thirties (and being in debt for a lot of money) I would not recommend these careers unless you are truly passionate for the profession.

[LynnyC]

04:13 PM on 01/20/2011

My friend that studied history and got a degree, is not even qualified to teach it to school kids. She now needs a teaching certificate which means a couple more years until she can even be a teacher. She is currently working as a secretary, oops, never mind, she got laid off, she has no job. Don't try to study history as your major, is my advice from seeing my friend fall into depression.

I also think these average salaries are fabricated somehow (people will not normally say they make less or equal to what they really make, out of pride.) and this list doesn't reflect the people that can't get hired with the skills it takes to have these careers. It's never a good idea to choose your career based on what these studies show. Do what you want, if that happens to be Historian, then do it because you have passion and drive, don't do it because it made a top job list.

[ScottV]

05:00 PM on 01/11/2011

HP you put a picture of Network equipment up for Software Engineer obviously you have no clue.

[cdchicago]

05:03 PM on 01/11/2011

Didn't look at the picture, but yes, that looks like a patch bay. Perhaps two screens with eclipse on them. A little java too.

[xilduq]

09:02 PM on 01/11/2011

and an Indian at the terminal

[bridge to somewhere]

03:50 PM on 02/02/2011

I looked at the image and assumed Network Engineer or analyst. Either that or it's a rat's nest analyst...what a mess.

[cdchicago]

04:49 PM on 01/11/2011

Software engineer used to be the best job in America. Changes in project management and customer expectations have turned a great and noble profession into a job in which you are hounded to produce rapid poor quality caffeine induced code that does not get to be refactored because you simply do not have time to produce better code or the code you wanted to produce. weaknesses in requirements get dumped on software engineers who often have to research the requirements them selves along with their already difficult jobs.
I would be curious to know the divorce rate for software engineers.and how many saved, unused vacation days they carry around each year. They earn a lot, but they work constantly in a constantly changing environment.

[xilduq]

09:05 PM on 01/11/2011

requirements? what are those? :-/

[Kopie]

03:29 PM on 01/11/2011

I'm surprised being a mauderator didn't make this list. This site seems to have hired a bunch recently!

[cdchicago]

05:00 PM on 01/11/2011

Wish they would hire me.

Moderator is too rare a job to make the list. Recent hires are a side effect of the rapidly growing popularity of this web sight. Still rare thought and far from as easy as it looks.

[Lisa Spurgeon Bullock]

07:05 PM on 01/12/2011

Sorry have to go there...or a spelling proofreader.

[GirlFriday123]

03:14 PM on 01/11/2011

Wonder where they got the $63k for the Historian job. Interesting sure, but most history professors I know seem to have taken vows of poverty.

[bridge to somewhere]

03:52 PM on 02/02/2011

Perhaps they mean the 'new' historians...you know...the ones rewriting history...

[lee4]

10:36 AM on 01/11/2011

Another list I don't agree with.