# The No. 1 job in America that pays $100,000 a year — and it’s not in Silicon Valley

No. 1 was physician assistant ($112,260 a year, requiring a Master’s degree), followed by software developer ($107,510 a year, requiring a Bachelor’s degree), nurse practitioner ($110,700 a year, requiring a Master’s degree), medical and health services manager ($100,980 a year, requiring a Bachelor’s), and physician ($206,500 a year, requiring a Doctorate).

The researchers looked at jobs with the largest projected number and percentage of openings from 2019 to 2029, as determined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They then looked at a series of other factors rated on a scale of 1 to 10, including stress levels, future career prospects, unemployment rate, and a projected 10-year growth in number of those jobs.

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Front-end engineers ($105,240 a year) were No. 1 on Glassdoor’s new “50 Best Jobs in America” — knocking data scientists from the No. 3 spot to the No. 4 spot after four years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They were followed by java developer ($83,589), data scientist ($107,801), product manager ($117,713) and devops engineer ($107,310).

The Glassdoor score is determined by weighing three factors equally: Earning potential (median annual base salary), overall job satisfaction rating and number of job openings. For a job title to be considered, it must receive at least 100 salary reports and at least 100 job satisfaction ratings shared by U.S.-based employees in one year. C-suite and intern level jobs were excluded from the data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.00%,
S&P 500
SPX,
-0.02%
 and Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.13%
 had a tumultuous 2020. They opened higher Tuesday as investors weighed the likelihood of a more generous stimulus under a President Biden amid increased risk of more political unrest after the siege on Capitol Hill by supporters of President Trump last week.