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By Emma Barker
Complaining about stress is the new complaining about the weather. "What's up?" "Just kinda stressed." "How's your mother?" "Stressed." "What are you up to this weekend?" "Planning to run a hot bath and stress about Monday's incipient arrival." Everyone is always stressed out all the time, and everyone knows it's terrible for them.
The problem is, among other things, our jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans work more hours and take less vacation than people in any other country. The job market is looking decent for 2013 (better than the dismal ones of past years) and there are new, less crappy jobs to snag.
Recently, CareerCast released their annual lists of the most stressful and least stressful jobs in America. Most of them seem pretty obvious: Working in the military, being a firefighter, police officer, or commercial airline pilot, a PR or corporate executive, or being a photojournalist or news reporter.
Want to chill out? Apparently you should join the fashion industry. On the list of least stressful jobs are seamstress/tailor, jeweler, and hair stylist. Of course, there are some more lucrative options, like audiologist, dietitian, and university professor, but those don't sound nearly as fun. Unfortunately, getting some of these coveted, stress-free jobs might be more stressful than taking a more anxiety-inducing one; the job outlook for becoming a jeweler is an abysmal -5 percent, with seamstress/tailor just ahead at only one percent. See you guys in audiology class!
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Features Editor
Emma Barker edits longform reporting at Cosmopolitan. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn, NY.
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