Lawyers Stressed? Not According To This Survey

LawFuel - The Law Jobs and News Wire
A new survey shows lawyers are way down the stress list

While lawyers may complain about stress and use it to justify high income levels, the job ranks way down in the stress ratings according to a survey from a US employment firm.

Surgeons, airline pilots and firemen endure more stress than lawyers, according to the survey from Careercast, which ranked 200 jobs according to stress levels.

Lawyers spoken to by LawFuel indicated that the job had definitely become more stressful than ever due to the recession but generally rejected an overall finding by a survey like Comcast’s because it didn’t differentiate between different areas of legal practice.

“A litigator handling a major lawsuit is going to find considerably more stress than a country lawyer handling a basic conveyance,” one lawyer said. “But with the amount of change occurring in law and the relative competitiveness, the stress levels are significant, but I wouldn’t want to rank them with other occupations,” another said.

The Careercast survey ranks a variety of factors in five core criteria including competitiveness, environmental conditions, lifting required, life risk factors, win-loss conditions and other issues. A surgeon ranked a stress level of 99.46 compared to an attorney with a ranking of 64.33 and a judge with 46.67. Top in the legal profession was the paralegal assistants with 23.08.

The legal jobs ratings were:

Paralegal Assistant - 17
Judges - 69
Attorney – 82

Mathematicians received the coveted title of America’s best job while a lumberjack was rated the worst.

ENDS