Financial adviser rises in list of top jobs

A ranking of America's top jobs found that financial advice increasingly is a terrific profession, moving up 16 spots on the U.S. News and World Report list from last year. “Financial adviser” ranked No. 25 of the 100 Best Jobs of 2015, according to an annual list released by the publication Tuesday. The profession landed at No. 41 last year, No. 32 in 2013 and No. 23 in 2012, which was the first year the list was published. The profession's jump probably has the most to do with the field's great job prospects, said Jada Graves, careers editor for U.S. News. Financial adviser jobs are expected to increase 27% from 2012 to 2022, compared with 10% growth on average for other professions, she said. The sector also has a low unemployment rate of about 2.5%, compared to 5.6% for all jobs. Financial adviser ranked No. 5 on the list of the Best Business Jobs for 2015, which included 25 jobs in the financial, insurance, marketing and business operations realms. All positions were ranked based on government data about hiring demand, growth in the last decade, salary, employment rate, future job prospects, stress level and work-life balance, Ms. Graves said. (The full list: The 10 best business jobs of 2015) Being an adviser ranked high in terms of average work-life balance, even though the position is considered to have an above average stress level, Ms. Graves said. Financial adviser did not make it onto a new list created by U.S. News, Best Paying Jobs. At the top of that list are physicians, dentists, marketing managers, information technology managers and lawyers. The U.S. News jobs feature listed the median annual salary for financial advisers at $75,320 in 2013, the most-recent data used, with the lowest-paid making less than $33,190 and the highest-paid earning at least $187,199. The average salary was $99,920 in 2013. The best paid financial advisers were located in the metropolitan areas of Bridgeport, Conn., Wilmington, N.C., and Greenville, N.C., according to U.S. News. (More: InvestmentNews' National Adviser Compensation Database) The four other professions that beat out financial adviser on the business jobs list are market research analyst, marketing manager, accountant and operations research analyst. The top three jobs on the 100 Best Jobs list are dentist, nurse practitioner and software developer.