Audiologist least stressful job

Chilean couple Patricio Villablanca (R) and Helen Vega (standing C) work with a speech therapist (L) to prepare their 6-year-old deaf, dumb son, Dan Villablanca Vega, for his first experience at hearing after having a cochlear device surgically implanted nearly two months earlier, at the Naval Hospital in Vina del Mar, 112 kms west of Santiago, January 28, 2005.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Stressed out by your job and looking for a change? Chances are you work in media, and maybe should consider something in health care.

A new report on the most, and least stressful professions, showed that more than half of the 10 least-stressful jobs are in the health care, led by audiologists, who assess and treat hearing disorders.

"Professions that involve low stress have very little danger and minimal physical demands," said Tony Lee, publisher of careercast.com, a jobs website which compiled the report.

Other jobs in the field that fill the bill for low pressure and competition, with shorter work weeks, include dietitian, dental hygienist, speech pathologist, occupational therapist and chiropractor.

Jobs in media, led by public relations executives, dominated the highest stress professions, according to the report, although commercial airline pilot topped the list.

"Jobs in communication can be high pressure," explained Lee, "especially for public relations executives handling crisis situations, newscasters who go on-air with little or no time for preparation and photojournalists working in dangerous environments."

Other high-stress positions included senior corporate executive, advertising account executive, architect and stockbroker.

Software engineer, computer programer and mathematician were all rated low-stress.

Among so-called blue-collar jobs, firefighter, police officer and taxi driver topped the high-stress list, while jobs such as bookbinders, photo process workers, musical instrument repairers and auto assemblers are considered low-stress.

Researchers compiled the ranking by analyzing 200 different jobs on their environment, competitiveness and risk. They assigned a numerical value to factors that invoked stress, and whether or not that factor was central to the job being evaluated.

They also used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Trade Associations.