What are the happiest jobs in the world?

When the phrase ‘happiest jobs in the world’ comes to mind, you’d be forgiven for thinking of leisure-centric positions like chocolate taster and film critic. In reality, the roles people are most pleased with are reasonably common, spanning a variety of different sectors.

Unsurprisingly, there is a significant correlation between the list of happiest jobs and decent salaries, although there are a couple of exceptions, most notably Graduate Teaching Assistant ($28,972). Coming in as the third happiest job, they earn roughly a sixth of what a Directional Driller does, which occupies position number six with an annual salary of $178,155.

There is a relatively even spread in terms of line of work, with technology, marketing and engineering-based jobs appearing on more than one occasion.

Unfortunately, there is also a list of the 10 unhappiest jobs too. Once again, there was a clear relationship between happiness and salaries, which were considerably lower across the board. For example, the average wage for the happiest jobs was $81,115 compared with $42,291 for the unhappiest list.

Jobs in engineering featured on both lists, holding the ninth spot for happiest (Senior Engineer) and unhappiest (Project Engineer). While there is a financial divide (Senior Engineers make an extra $36,000 compared with Project Engineers), it is possible this is also determined by seniority and working conditions.