These Are the Best Jobs in the U.S. in 2020

You're going to spend an obscene amount of your life at work. It'll help you feel better about that reality if you can enjoy what you're doing. Hopefully, that enjoyment coincides with making a liveable wage with benefits that take care of you and your family. 

Unfortunately, that's a hell of a lot easier said than done. To help you get there, Glassdoor, a job listings site, has put together its annual list of the 50 Best Jobs in America. The ranking weighs three factors: median annual base salary, job satisfaction, and the number of job openings in the field.

It's useful information, but the positions are a moving target. Data scientist topped the list last year but falls to third in this year's report. In 2019, it was followed by nursing manager (11th this year) and marketing manager (not listed this year). Despite the shifting list, it provides a quick glimpse of the job market and median salaries at these positions, according to Glassdoor's research. Here are the top 50 from the 2020 list, along with the median salary for each position. 

50. Healthcare Consultant ($79,065)
49. Network Engineer ($71,028)
48. Design Manager ($120,549)
47. Research Scientist ($85,611)
46. Automation Engineer ($85,456)
45. EHS Specialist ($76, 854)
44. Data Analyst ($62,973)
43. Civil Engineer ($65,704)
42. Sale Engineer ($65,704)
41. Physician Assistant ($109,585)
40. Financial Analyst ($71,334)
39. QA Engineer ($81,632)
38. UX Designer ($90,478)
37. Corporate Recruiter ($65,607)
36. Mechanical Engineer ($75,700)
35. Realtor ($50,467)
34. Product Designer ($102,000)
33. Cloud Engineer ($110,600)
32. Software Developer ($80,429)
31. Risk Manager ($101,468)
30. Customer Success Manager ($66,326)
29. Scrum Master ($100,000)
28. Compliance Office ($84,784)
27. Systems Engineer ($92,225)
26. Business Analyst ($73,022)
25. Sales Manager ($70,489)
24. Facilities Manager ($70,160)
23. Occupational Therapist ($74,339)
22. Electrical Engineer ($77,035)
21. Project Manager ($77,396)
20. Physical Therapist ($71,483)
19. Clinic Manager ($70,000)
18. Applications Engineer ($76,854)
17. Program Manager ($87,005)
16. Accounting Manager ($85,794)
15. Finance Manager ($120,644)
14. Salesforce Developer ($81,175)
13. Operations Manager ($70,189)
12. HR Manager ($83,190)
11. Nursing Manager ($85,389)
10. Business Development Manager ($78,480)
9. Strategy Manager ($133,067)
8. Speech Language Pathologist ($71,867)
7. Software Engineer ($105,563)
6. Data Engineer ($102,472)
5. Devops Engineer ($107,310)
4. Product Manager ($117,713)
3. Data Scientist ($107,801)
2. Java Developer ($83,589)
1. Front End Engineer ($105,240)

As is often the case with lists like this, tech is dominant. The top seven places are tech jobs and 20 overall positions are tech-related. However, the position with the highest job satisfaction of these 50 was corporate recruiters with a score of 4.4 out of 5.

If you're in the market for a new job, a list like this can be useful. However, don't underestimate following your passion and doing something you love, if that's something that is possible for you.

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