The publisher of CareerCast.com and JobsRated.com discusses the sites' recent ranking of occupations, which put two IT jobs in the top 10.

Computerworld: What sorts of criteria were used?

Tony Lee: To quantify the many facets of the 200 jobs included in our report, we determined and reviewed various critical aspects of all of the jobs, categorizing them into five core criteria—that is, the general categories that are inherent to every job: work environment, income, outlook, stress and physical demands. Many smaller criteria are included in these core areas, and all are weighted and reviewed by our team of researchers. One overarching theme is that the more control you have over your daily activities, the higher that job tends to rank. So if you have a boss looking over your shoulder or frequent tight deadlines that have to be met, your job will lose points in the rankings. [Note: The full methodology is explained at careercast.com]

A lot of people in the technology field would be surprised to see "software engineer" at No. 5, given that such positions are increasingly being offshored. Did it score high for job security?

Job security was its lowest score, but it scored so high in the other categories, it landed at No. 5. Software engineer scored highest for work environment. The majority of software engineers work in nice offices, with a cafeteria nearby, and [they] can do things like listen to music via headphones, which is far nicer than many other jobs. It also ranked high for income, with an average of [US]$86,139.

It sounds like the more sedentary a job, the higher it ranked. But is physical activity really a drawback in a job?

Not necessarily, as long as the physical activity doesn't frequently lead to injury. For instance, petroleum engineers and geologists both often work outside the office but still rank among the top 30 best jobs, since it's unlikely their outside work will lead to harm or is done in uncomfortable weather.

The economy has shifted quickly over the past few months. Do you have a sense of how those changes might affect the rankings if you were to take a new look today?

We kept following the data right through the fall, so while there may be a few small changes since then, the data should be up to date.

The 10 Best Jobs

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

Source: CareerCast.com ranking of occupations, September 2008