Do you have the worst job in the world?

Here is a fascinating but surely flawed list from the Wall Street Journal. American recruitment specialists Careercast have listed 200 jobs, rating them from best to worst. They took into consideration working environment, stress, physical demands and job prospects. Where you think a newspaper reporter came? Top ten probably,  top 50 without a doubt? No, a hack's job is 188th, behind a dishwasher, maid, ad rep, garbage collector, mail carrier (postman to you and me), barman, janitor and waiter. Photojournalists do marginally better at no 185. A publication editor is ranked 80th, a photographer 144th and, most bizarrely, a typesetter/compositor comes in at 120th. The full list makes no mention of copy-editors (subs to you and me). The report goes on to say that the jobs in the bottom 20 (which include reporters and photojournalists) tend to suffer from a combination of fatal flaws – low salaries, difficult working conditions, serious risk of injury or death, and poor employment prospects over the coming years. Wow. I appreciate things have been tough of late - but a reporter's job worse than being a waiter or a dishwasher? Mind you, it could be worse still. You could be a compiler of dubious lists.