Summary: The U.S. News and World Report has recently ranked the job of lawyer as no. 51, lower than massage therapist.
Used to be having a son attending law school granted bragging rights. What better retort to that smug neighbor whose boy is a doctor than to say “my daughter is an attorney”? Then 2008 happened, hamstringing the legal sector and rendering a market flooded with fresh JDs – about 40,000 a year passing the bar – and far fewer jobs to be filled. It comes as no surprise, then, that the yearly U.S. News and World Report with its ranking of 100 best jobs in the nation has lowered that of lawyer from 2013’s No. 35, already lower than we would expect, down to no. 51.
Mind you, it’s a great job to have if you can succeed at it, and long has been: ask any successful lawyer. But the U.S. News and World Report makes its ranking based on number of openings, opportunities for advancement, and salary. Turns out that the report ranked middle school teacher at no. 50 somewhat better, despite what a difficult age that is for kids, and nail technician at no. 49, though a small investment compared to law school.
With massage therapist at no. 27, any hard working, studious, and exacting lawyer might wonder why he invested his life and care into the profession. If he follows such doubts too far, he could lead to the sort of depression that renders the legal profession as the fourth most likely to end in suicide.
However, the professions that are even more likely to end that way includes physician, pharmacist, and dentist, so perhaps the pressure and demands of the job contribute to the depression.
Nevertheless, just as a man might wonder why he married this woman rather than that, the ultimate explanation for his choice may not lie within his will, as if he calculated the profession based on something like the U.S. News and World Report. Something in his being fell in love with his wife, something in his being needed to be a lawyer, so let those who are discouraged by such reports as this be so discouraged, the rest of us know our place.
