The 10 Most Stressful Jobs: CareerCast

We don't need April to be labelled Stress Awareness Month to know how stressful the American workplace can be. And with fears of a double dip recession only adding top of the usual demand of performing your job at a high level, it's worse now than ever.

A recent survey conducted by CareerCast asked respondents to rank 200 different jobs based on the level of stress. To quantify workplace anxiety, the survey asked respondents to rate eleven stress factors found in the workplace: outlook/growth potential, travel, deadlines, working in the public eye, competitiveness, physical demands, environmental conditions, hazards encountered, own life at risk, life of another at risk and meeting the public.

What they found was that stress can show itself in a number of ways. For real estate agents, it's the unusual hours, while the responsibility of caring for others, as in occupations like emergency medical technicians and airline pilots, can foster more palpable stress. Among newscasters and corporate executives, instead, it's the expectations of the job that induces performance anxiety.

Here are the top ten most stressful jobs according to CareerCast.

1 of 10

10. Real Estate Agent

1 of 11

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

Stress Rank: 181 Stress Score: 38.57 Hiring Outlook Rank: 31 out of 200 Hours Per Day: 9.5 Income: $40,357.00

Jon Corzine, Ex-MF Global CEO, Netted More Than $8 Million Before Firm's Collapse

Hospital Debt Collection A Symptom Of A Sick Health Care System

Yolanda Quesada Fired From Wells Fargo For Shoplifting 40 Years Ago

Warren Buffett's 'Secret Millionaires Club' Awarding $5,000 To Kid Entrepreneurs

Foreclosed Homes Destroyed By Previous Owners (VIDEO)

Robert Whitten Wins Battle With Bank Of America Over Lifetime Free Checking Account (VIDEO)

Stress Rank: 181
Stress Score: 38.57
Hiring Outlook Rank: 31 out of 200
Hours Per Day: 9.5
Income: $40,357.00

comments(377)

Total comments: 377 | Post a Comment

1 of 11

Rate This Slide

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Freaking out Total relaxation

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Current Top 5 Slides

loading...

Choose your Top 5 Slides

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[browneyes0000]

03:38 AM on 05/21/2011

STRESSFUL IS HOW U LIVE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK..WAGES GETTING SMALLER PRICES GETTING HIGHER.STRESSED OUT ON HOW TO PAY YOUR MORTGAGE, STRESSED OUT ON HOW YOUR GONNA FEED YOUR FAMILY..Gas prices soar half of your low waged check goes TO IT. While on the other side of the country and the other side of the world oil profits sore, to the billions.CEOs getting bonuses and tax breaks, the majority of the united states gets taxed on food and heating.Stressful is to settle for low waged and part time jobs with no healthcare no benefits.For a measly eight bucks an hour, working forty hours a week, and still not getting the rent paid.Stressful is working hard and not getting any respect and not getting anywhere, stuck in a dead end job so you could at least pay half your rent..peasant wages for a high rich society that only 2% of you enjoy.if it wasn't for the little folk your city would definitely not run.Because it is placed on the labor on our backs.You better stay grounded and real huffpost not everyone can be a CEO or a Stockbroker.

[browneyes0000]

01:32 AM on 05/21/2011

I think working at walmart would be stressful underpaid no health care..Living paycheck to paycheck! This is the real life I dont feel bad for CEOS who make thousands on the hour!

[browneyes0000]

01:21 AM on 05/21/2011

Can we have some realistic jobs on here?

[Gavin Glennon]

07:45 PM on 05/20/2011

Try working as a location manager for a TV or film shoot for a day, folks.

[Anebt Anurami]

06:47 PM on 05/20/2011

Public relations officer at #2? What is so stressful about telling people, "We're looking into the matter" over and over until they retire?

[blessyourlittleheart]

05:45 PM on 05/20/2011

Newscaster is ranked #1 in the poll? Besides being born beautiful and having the ability to read, what is required of a newscaster? Obviously the genetic crapshoot that creates pretty people is the most prohibitive factor in becoming one such "professional."

[way2sunny]

05:37 PM on 05/20/2011

I just want to know why "sexual dysfunction" is one of the tags for this story

[Ziggy1982]

12:06 PM on 05/20/2011

Real estate agent but NOT Air Traffic Controller? FAIL!

[Protocolor]

12:01 PM on 05/20/2011

OK, I can see pilot and EMT being on the list, but stuff like real estate agent, architect and newscaster? Those aren't even in the ballpark with public school teacher. As for photojournalist, all of the ones that I've met in dangerous places have been adrenalin junkies anyway and they wouldn't want the job if it didn't involve a bit of thrill (stress).

I can't really comment on the others, though I guess senior corporate executives must face incredible stress if their time is really worth tens of $thousands per hour.

[edsalldw]

03:51 PM on 05/17/2011

THis is pure bunk I have friends and relatives ( mother-50 years as ereal estate agent- cousin airline pitol for 20 years- sister and others in some of these jobs) with many of these jobs.

Most of these jobs ( not pilot and EMT) are not stressful unless you are self centered. Did any one consider physicians? As an anesthesiologist I have lives in my hands litterally every day. If I screw up I loose a lot of things like job- house- maybe even carreer. Guilt is so high as a group we have a high rate of depression and suicide. Who gets sued directly and personally doing these jobs? What about falsely sued? My job is inherrently in conflict with surgeons and nurses or hopital each of whom has a slightly to extreemly different view of the case patient. Give me a break- when was the last time a real estate agent was responsible for a life - felt guilty enough for suicide when a mistake is made. Lost their job over one mistake when everyone agrees that the preformance was good to excellent before that mistake? Compare that to a surgeon who cut the wrong thing and the patient looses the use of an arm!! Maybe these jobs should be titled highest stress felt by the worker becaude they can't handle stress. or stress without satisfaction I love my job and woud not trade it for anything else so I accept and handle the stress.

[prea66]

09:27 PM on 05/17/2011

Yah, I was thinking medical field, nurses, doctors, EMT's, anesthesiologists, and also firefighters and cops.

[mrhandyman3105]

03:16 PM on 05/17/2011

With the current state of affairs in the Republican Party the number one spot will probably be "REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN".

[Cyndie Harper Williams]

02:35 PM on 05/17/2011

THEY OUGHT TO TRY WORKING IN RETAIL!!! WORKING WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC HAS GOT TO BE ONE OF THE MOST UNGODLY STRESSFUL JOBS, ESPECIALLY AFTER TWENTY YEARS OF IT!!!

[Eric Mann]

08:13 AM on 05/17/2011

Teacher wasn't on the list eh? All these high-powered people-except for the EMTs- are well compensated for their stress, so I really do have a tiny violin to play "my heart bleeds for you" to them.

[robertshaw]

03:40 PM on 05/17/2011

So you don't think it's a big deal that a pilot might have several hundred people's lives in his or her hands day in and day out?

[psychophil]

01:32 AM on 05/17/2011

I think you could take virtually any job and put them up here. Being a teacher or a doctor or an accountant or anything else can be really stressful under certain conditions.

[woodywood]

11:54 PM on 05/16/2011

I Spent several Year's Working in Emergency Room's. I cannot imagine anything short of Military Duty on the Lines being more stressful. Real Estate Agent ? Really ???