In today’s world, stress exists in many different aspects of our lives. Let’s take a moment to look at how our career choice affect our stress level. Data collected by the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) was used to rank the most stressful jobs in America.  Factors such as high-stress situations, strict deadlines, consequences of employee errors, brutal criticism, and regularly having other people’s lives in your hands were considered in ranking job stress on a scale of 0 to 100 for each job.  A higher rating signals higher stress.

The 14 most stressful jobs in America are:

1. Psychiatric Aides – Stress Tolerance: 99.5
2. Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers – Stress Tolerance: 98.5
3. Psychiatric Technicians – Stress Tolerance: 98.5
4. Dancers – Stress Tolerance: 97
5. Obstetricians and Gynecologsts – Stress Tolerance: 96.5
6. Surgeons – Stress Tolerance: 96.2
7. Air Traffic Controllers- Stress Tolerance: 96.2
8. Pilots, Co-Pilots, and Flight Engineers – Stress Tolerance: 95.2
9. Phlebotomy Technicians – Stress Tolerance: 95
10. Nurse Anesthetists – Stress Tolerance: 94.7
11. Broadcast News Analysts – Stress Tolerance: 94.7
12. Education Administrators – Stress Tolerance: 94.2
13. Metal Health Counselors – Stress Tolerance: 94.2
14. First Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives – Stress Tolerance: 94

Understanding the stressors of your career choice may help to remedy how we view and cope with those specific occupational stressors.

What are your job stressors? Where would you rate your job stress level?