Dental assistant is the No. 1 best job for young people in the current economy, according to a story in Forbes.
Forbes interviewed jobs expert Laurence Shatkin, PhD, author of the new book 150 Best Jobs for Your Skills, who considered a variety of data to determine the 15 best jobs for young people in the U.S. today.
Shatkin examined jobs with a large concentration of workers ages 16 to 24 (at least 15%), which represent more opportunities for initial entry and upward mobility, and ranked them by median annual earnings, the job's projected growth, and the annual number of openings, as tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Based on these data, dental assistant topped the list for a number of reasons, according to Shatkin. The position requires only moderate-term, on-the-job training and entails preparing patients and dental equipment and keeping track of inventory and medical records. Earning $33,470 annually, 17.6% of these workers are younger than 25, and the function is increasingly in demand. The job is expected to grow 35.7% and boasts 16,100 openings each year, Shatkin found.
In addition, an entry-level job such as dental assistant can serve as a low-risk way to learn about a field before investing time and money into a professional education, according to Shatkin.
