The grass is always greener as they say. The traditional view of paralegaling for many in the UK is as a stepping stone to becoming a fully qualified lawyer. However, that is not to say that there aren’t also plenty of satisfied paralegals out there who have no desire to become lawyers. When it comes to assessing who has the juciest leaves to chew, our North American cousins have come up with a new comprehensive ranking of jobs at JobsRated.com .

Basing their assessment on the following five criteria: stress, work environment, physical demands, income and outlook, they came up with some interesting ideas. Whilst paralegals might earn less, there are other considerations that send lawyers tumbling below them on the list…

According to the ABA Journal ,

Lawyers and stockbrokers, ranked 84th, both did poorly, and the reason is stress, the editors say. “Attorneys and stockbrokers may earn considerably more than bookbinders or telephone repair technicians [ranked 83rd and 81st respectively], but these high-powered careers are hurt by anxiety, as both rank among the 20 most stressful jobs on our list.”

So the advice from lawiscool is once you’ve finally paid off your law school debts, you might want to start searching for a new job – as a paralegal.

For the top ten jobs on the list click over (accountants sneaked in there!!!) or click here to see the full review.

The top 10 jobs on the list are:

1. Mathematician
2. Actuary
3. Statistician
4. Biologist
5. Software engineer
6. Computer systems analyst
7. Historian
8. Sociologist
9. Industrial designer
10. Accountant

The worst job on the list is lumberjack.