The 7 best jobs in America this year
Despite a slow labor market, these jobs are growing, with strong salaries and plenty of openings
It’s no secret we’re in the midst of a brutal job market. On average, people are spending more time searching for a new job than years past, and AI is upending the job search — as candidates and recruiters both use it often to their own peril. Plus, with AI swallowing up jobs and stoking fears of mass unemployment, people are looking to safeguard their careers, finding jobs that can’t be replaced by a computer.
The career platform Indeed set out to find the best jobs in the U.S. for 2026. It said its researchers “scored thousands of occupations on Indeed across pay, demand, growth, and flexibility, weighting compensation most heavily and giving equal weight to indicators of current and future opportunity.”
The highest-ranked professions are examples of “where strong wages intersect with sustained hiring needs,” Indeed explained.
And the list points to some interesting trends. “The labor market overall has been in this low-hire, stagnant space for the last year,” says Laura Ullrich, the North America research director for Indeed’s Hiring Lab. “One major exception is healthcare. Only 11% of total jobs are in healthcare, but it represents 72% of the job growth.”
Continue reading to see which made the top 7 and why.
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#7: Physical Therapist
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Physical therapists earn an estimated median annual salary of $110,848. Wages have increased 8% over the past three years, while job postings have remained flat at 0% growth. Remote roles are rare, given the work’s nature, making up just 2% of postings.
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#6: Licensed Clinical Social Worker
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Licensed clinical social workers have a median annual salary of $119,618, with 20% wage growth over three years. Job postings have declined 32% in that time, while 32% of listings are remote.
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#5: Licensed Professional Counselor
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Licensed professional counselors earn an estimated median annual salary of $107,812. Wages have grown 33% over three years, even as job postings fell 17%. Remote work accounts for 32% of postings.
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#4: Speech-Language Pathologist
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Speech-language pathologists report a median annual salary of $109,431. Wages are up 14% over three years, alongside 11% growth in job postings. About 8% of roles are remote.
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#3: Nurse Practitioner
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Nurse practitioners earn a median annual salary of $143,183, with 10% wage growth over the past three years. Job postings dipped 2% during that period, and 10% of listings are remote.
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#2: Owner-Operator Truck Driver
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Owner-operator truck drivers have an estimated median annual salary of $160,000. Wages declined 5% over three years, while job postings rose 39%.
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#1: Cardiac Medical Technician
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Cardiac medical technicians earn a median annual salary of $133,907. Both wages and job postings increased 34% over the past three years.