For the second year in a row, nurse practitioner has topped U.S. News & World Report’s Best Jobs ranking list. But what makes a job “the best?”

“Nurse practitioner maintains the No. 1 spot as this year’s best job because of its critical role in health management, the flexibility it provides and its strong 10-year career outlook,” said Carly Chase, vice president of careers at U.S. News.

“No. 2 is IT manager, No. 3 is physician assistant, No. 4 is financial manager and No. 5 being software engineer,” Chase said.

“It’s not surprising to me that four of those five jobs are STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) jobs,” Chase added. “We do see half of the jobs on the list being STEM, so that could be engineering, or science based, or health care based.”

She said the rankings are “100% data driven” with all of the data coming from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

“That’s opposed to what’s trendy, or what you might be hearing from family and friends. This really tries to give you an objective look,” Chase said.

Why are so many of the top jobs STEM-related?

“Certainly, No. 1 is the high pay — the average median wage that we look at — that’s a significant factor for us. But more importantly, those are areas that are projected by the BLS to continue to grow over the next 10 years, significantly,” Chase said.

Tailoring job rankings for your preferences

The 2025 Best Jobs rankings offer job seekers information on training and education requirements, median salary and job satisfaction across diverse sectors, including social services, education and construction.

Best jobs and highest-paying jobs without a college degree are also offered for those who did not attend or finish college.

“If work-life balance is most important to you, or future prospects, knowing that this job is going to continue to be a really large growth engine for the economy, whatever is important to you, you can come and see where the job ranks highest,” Chase said.

“We even released highest-paying cities, so if you’re thinking about a move in 2025, we’re giving you data and information to help you make those important decisions in your life,” she added.

With technology playing a large role in many jobs, some might wonder whether jobs will be replaced by robots.

“It’s not fortunetelling,” Chase said, but the U.S. News list incorporates metrics including future prospects, wage potential, employment, job safety, stability and work-life balance.

“Somebody could say, ‘Hey, software engineer, is that going to disappear because of the prominence of artificial intelligence?” Chase said. “We’d say look at the data, and the BLS and the government are saying, ‘No, that’s going to be one of the highest growing jobs over the next 10 years.’”

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