Jobs involving mathematics rated highly

April 29, 2013

Jobs involving mathematics rated highly

School students who hate maths should think again – jobs with a high degree of mathematical nous are rated highly in a recent survey of ‘best jobs’.

The actuarial profession came out on top of a list of 200 jobs which were ranked by “physical demands, work environment, income, stress and hiring outlook”. Mathematicians and statisticians also made it into the top 20.

The survey was conducted by CareerCast.com, a US-based jobs website.

It says actuaries – people who put a financial value on risk and determine the chances of accidents, sickness and death – were booming for a number of reasons.

According to the NZ Society of Actuaries, there are over 220 people active in the profession in New Zealand and the industry receives around 20 new recruits each year.

Society president, Paul Rhodes, says there is an increasing demand for actuaries as a wider range of organisations want to model, measure, understand and plan for future costs and risks.

The main fields of work for actuaries in New Zealand are life insurance, general insurance, superannuation and investments, either with insurance companies or as consulting actuaries.

The American survey concluded that being a biomedical engineer was next best, followed by software engineer – the top job in the same survey last year – audiologist and financial planner.

Other top careers include being a dental hygienist, an occupational therapist, optometrist, physical therapist while being a computer systems analyst rounds out the top 10.

ENDS

© Scoop Media