What jobs aren’t people doing? Private chefs, clock adjusters, temporary farm work recruiters, fake teeth makers, and more.
I recently got into a useless debate with a friend — as I always do — about the most common job in the U.S. I believed it was waiter/waitress. He thought it was teacher. Eventually, we agreed to disagree.
Then I went home and secretly took it to the Internet, where I found the Bureau of Labor Statistics website with the answer. We were both wrong — it’s retail salespeople. (Waiter/waitress came in sixth overall. “Teacher” is split up into primary/secondary/special ed, but still adds up to slightly less than retail sales. So I guess he was more right than me, but still wrong — which equals wrong.)
But popular jobs aren’t any fun. I flipped the table around to find the least popular jobs instead. As a cherry on top, I also threw in their mean wages because, you know, you might just find your true calling in life!
11 least popular jobs in the U.S.
So these are the least common jobs in the U.S.
“Popularity” in this case means the total number of people employed in the job, not how much they like the job. And, with apologies to Norm MacDonald, neither crack whore nor assistant crack whore made the list.
And it’s nice to know that the ones listed here are not creepy jobs, but actually something worth considering.
11. Agricultural Engineers
This is the only job in the list that has more than a thousand people working. As a matter of fact, there are only 1,120 of them having a mean annual wage of $87,350.
These superheroes of farming try to solve problems concerned with power and machinery, electrification, structures, soil and water conservation, and processing of agricultural products.
Who needs to save the world from climate change when you can design a more efficient tractor?
10. Animal Breeders
If you think this job is just throwing the same species of animals of opposite sex in a cage and watch them reproduce, it’s more than that.
Animal breeding is a bit complicated because you have to check the genealogy, characteristics, and offspring of each animal before mating them.
There are only 950 of these guys and girls around and they get paid $43,270 per year.
9. Pediatric Surgeons
Now, this job follows the supply-demand principle, as there are only a limited number of pediatric surgeons available in the country. These people have the highest salary of the 11 least popular jobs in the US.
There are only 820 pediatric surgeons in the country, including all pediatric surgical specialties and subspecialties. Their job is to diagnose and perform surgery to treat fetal abnormalities and birth defects, diseases, and injuries in fetuses, premature and newborn infants, children, and adolescents.
It’s no wonder why their mean hourly wage is at $140 per hour or $290,310 a year.
8. Prosthodontists
With only 790 people employed, prosthodontistry is one of the least popular job in the U.S. Of course, the fact that no one’s ever heard of this job isn’t helping its numbers. Prosthodontists are the people who make prosthetic devices for the mouth, like replacement teeth or jaws.
In other words — you probably have to spend a lot of time in school and then a lot more time inside of people’s mouths. But that’s well compensated with a mean annual salary of $143,730.
7. Refractory Materials Repairers, Except Brickmasons
This job involves building or repairing equipment such as furnaces, kilns, cupolas, boilers, converters, ladles, soaking pits, and ovens, using refractory materials. Refractory materials are materials that are resistant to high temperatures, corrosion, and erosion.
In short, this job will make you feel hot-headed and resistant to change while working with equipment that sounds like it belongs in a medieval castle.
There are only 660 workers belonging to this category and earning $54,760.
6. Industrial/organizational psychologists
Women might actually do this one.
It’s pretty rare to see women in the workforce, but Industrial/organizational psychologists might be the exception.
Their thrilling activities include the exciting world of policy planning, mind-blowing employee testing and selection, training, and development, and the nail-biting organizational development and analysis.
Who wouldn’t want to be an industrial/organizational psychologist when you can earn $113,320 a year and the competition is very low with a workforce of only 610?
5. Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters
Accurate timekeeping is important, and these clock assemblers and adjusters ensure that America’s clock is synchronized.
Timing device assemblers and adjusters perform precision assembling or adjusting of timing devices with narrow tolerances. They include digital clocks or timing devices with electrical or electronic components
I’m surprised that this job exists. What are the chances of meeting one of these people when they are only 560 in America, earning an annual mean salary of $44,670? If they are paid more than $200k a month, I’ll be glad to find them and submit myself as apprentice.
4. Private Household Cooks or Private Chefs
There are only 440 private chefs in the U.S. earning $43,260 annual salary. But that’s not their fault. It’s rich people’s fault for going out to eat so much. Once again, curses to the irresistible siren’s song of Red Lobster shrimpfest. How many jobs must you destroy?
3. Temporary farm worker recruiters
This job is listed as “farm labor contractors,” which I initially interpreted as “contractors who do farm labor.” That’s not it.
It’s actually “people who find contractors for farm labor” which comes of far, far more niche. It probably involves going to lots of job fairs and really learning to extol the virtues of the exciting and fast-paced world of soybeans.
There are only 440 farm labor contractors out there with an annual salary of $54,400.
2. Wood modelmakers
This is another one that sounds like it could be a dream job — perhaps getting paid to glue together balsa wood airplanes to be displayed in hobby shops and VFW halls? — but it’s not.
Wood modelmakers are guys (I know I should keep it gender neutral, but this job sounds as husky as whittler, which also seems strictly male) who make precisely scaled wood models of products.
With only 340 workers throughout the country, this job could command a wage hike like no other. But we all know this isn’t true, as they earn $60,040 on average per year.
1. Wood Patternmakers
Wood Patternmakers are skilled craftsmen who create patterns, templates, or models out of wood for use in the manufacturing of products. They possess the expertise to strategize, design, and build wooden unit or sectional patterns that are used in creating sand molds for castings.
There are only 210 people working in this industry, making it the least popular job in the United States right now. Their mean hourly wage is $24.53 or equivalent to $51,020 a year.
I’m a bit disappointed that the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not include or don’t have the data for those working in the adult film industry, like the strippers and porn stars. I mean, who wouldn’t want to know how much they earn, right? I guess we’ll just have to settle for the least popular jobs
