Workers across technology, health care and business hold some of the best jobs of 2020, according to Indeed's latest ranking of the most promising occupations in the job market.
The career site looked at its database to identify the 25 best jobs of the year based on three things: average pay, the share of the job title's growth on the site in the past three years, and the number of postings for the job for every 1 million total listings on the site.
In doing so, analysts are able to determine the roles that pay well, have seen promising career growth on the market and are in-demand by employers. The ranking only considers jobs that pay $75,000 or more per year.
Coming in as the No. 1 job of the year is software architect, which pays an average of $119,715 per year and is the most in-demand job listing on the site, with just over 1,400 openings for every 1 million job listings on Indeed overall.
In this role, workers act as a designer and developer to help clients, businesses and software engineers create and execute software solutions. Similar to building architects (who are included as the No. 25 best job of the year), software architects make high-level design choices that impact the nuts and bolts of the software they're working on. Workers in this role tend to have a bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, software engineering or other related fields, and employers tend to require five or more years of experience for this mid-level position.
The No. 2 best job of the year is another technology role. Full stack developers command an average base salary of $94,164 per year and saw a 162% rise in job listings on Indeed since 2016 — the biggest increase of any job on the list. These software engineers need a broad coding skill set in order to work with both the front and back end of a website or application.
The majority of the top 10 best jobs are technology roles. This reflects trends in the job market overall, where companies are adding technology roles to their teams faster than they can find skilled workers to fill them, resulting in a talent shortage. As a result, tech workers are in some of the best positions to negotiate for higher pay and perks.
The best jobs that pay most fall mostly in the health-care field, however. Dentists are the highest-paid workers on the list, with an average base salary of $184,586 per year. Other health-care workers, including internal medicine physicians and primary care physicians, command six-figure salaries.
As for where jobs are growing fastest outside of technology, real estate agents are ranked No. 3 on the best-jobs list overall and saw a 157% growth in job listings on Indeed in the past three years. The housing market heated up at the end of 2019 in particular, and new home sales in the U.S. hit a 12.5-year high in January 2020.
Here are the top 25 best jobs of 2020, according to Indeed.
25. Architect
Average base salary: $92,601 per year
Job growth since 2016: 20.42%
Openings per 1 million listings: 345
24. Primary care physician
Average base salary: $132,842 per year
Job growth since 2016: 12.5%
Openings per 1 million listings: 377
23. IT technician
Average base salary: $79,850 per year
Job growth since 2016: 35.16%
Openings per 1 million listings: 403
22. Internal medicine physician
Average base salary: $177,831 per year
Job growth since 2016: 16.72%
Openings per 1 million listings: 408
21. HR business partner
Average base salary: $78,744 per year
Job growth since 2016: 28.76%
Openings per 1 million listings: 414
20. Cloud engineer
Average base salary: $110,264 per year
Job growth since 2016: 107.77%
Openings per 1 million listings: 416
19. Controller
Average base salary: $82,151 per year
Job growth since 2016: 18.71%
Openings per 1 million listings: 435
18. Attorney
Average base salary: $86,563 per year
Job growth since 2016: 76.56%
Openings per 1 million listings: 439
17. Civil engineer
Average base salary: $78,986 per year
Job growth since 2016: 18.9%
Openings per 1 million listings: 443
16. Superintendent
Average base salary: $75,266 per year
Job growth since 2016: 48.75%
Openings per 1 million listings: 452
15. Scientist
Average base salary: $87,726 per year
Job growth since 2016: 21.08%
Openings per 1 million listings: 458
14. Veterinarian
Average base salary: $92,431 per year
Job growth since 2016: 69.22%
Openings per 1 million listings: 460
13. Finance manager
Average base salary: $79,106 per year
Job growth since 2016: 22.61%
Openings per 1 million listings: 470
12. Data engineer
Average base salary: $113,777 per year
Job growth since 2016: 135.48%
Openings per 1 million listings: 492
11. Product owner
Average base salary: $92,871 per year
Job growth: 106.32%
Openings per 1 million listings: 494
10. Sales director
Average base salary: $77,814 per year
Job growth since 2016: 16.75%
Openings per 1 million listings: 556
9. IT security specialist
Average base salary: $94,984 per year
Job growth since 2016: 12.47%
Openings per 1 million listings: 562
8. Data scientist
Average base salary: $105,510 per year
Job growth since 2016: 77.57%
Openings per 1 million listings: 615
7. Java developer
Average base salary: $93,820 per year
Job growth since 2016: 11.14%
Openings per 1 million listings: 618
6. Electrical engineer
Average base salary: $79,842 per year
Job growth since 2016: 20.79%
Openings per 1 million listings: 632
5. Development operations engineer
Average base salary: $108,761 per year
Job growth since 2016: 31.69%
Openings per 1 million listings: 635
4. Dentist
Average base salary: $184,586 per year
Job growth since 2016: 31.69%
Openings per 1 million listings: 674
3. Real estate agent
Average base salary: $90,439 per year
Job growth since 2016: 157.08%
Openings per 1 million listings: 675
2. Full stack developer
Average base salary: $94,164 per year
Job growth since 2016: 161.98%
Openings per 1 million listings: 893
1. Software architect
Average base salary: $119,715 per year
Job growth since 2016: 18.64%
Openings per 1 million listings: 1,424
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