Do you have one of the 10 Most Stress­ful Jobs of 2012?

1. Enlisted Soldier

Stress Score: 84.61

Aver­age Income: $35,580

There are a vari­ety of duties an enlisted sol­dier may per­form as a part of his or her job. From serv­ing food in the mess hall to fight­ing a bat­tle on the front line, to avoid­ing land mines along the path to a vil­lage, the duties a sol­dier car­ries out have very dif­fer­ent lev­els of respon­si­bil­ity. How­ever, on aggre­gate, the Enlisted Sol­dier takes our top spot for most stressful.

2. Fire­fighter

Stress Score: 60.26

Aver­age Income: $45,250

Whether it’s run­ning into burn­ing build­ings to save lives, putting out rag­ing fires or respond­ing to a seri­ous acci­dent, Fire­fight­ers put their lives on the line to save oth­ers. The high degree of dan­ger mixed with life and death deci­sions makes this our num­ber two most stress­ful job.

3. Air­line Pilot

Stress Score: 59.58

Aver­age Income: $103,210

The pres­sure is high for com­mer­cial air­line pilots. They are not only expected to guar­an­tee the safety of pas­sen­gers, but also to keep their flights on-time, even when fly­ing in inclement weather. A pilot’s irreg­u­lar work­ing hours and routes lead to con­tin­ual lay­overs in var­i­ous cities and, often, to jet lag.

4. Mil­i­tary General

Stress Score: 55.17

Aver­age Income: $196,300

A mil­i­tary gen­eral is a high-ranking leader in their branch of the armed forces. They com­mand troops through mil­i­tary train­ing oper­a­tions and into bat­tle. The com­plex and dan­ger­ous nature of their work, as well as the neces­sity to make life and death deci­sions for their troops, results in this being ranked as a highly stress­ful profession.

5. Police Officer

Stress Score: 53.63

Aver­age Income: $53,540

A police offi­cer helps to pro­vide pro­tec­tion to cit­i­zens against crime and inves­ti­gates crim­i­nal activ­i­ties. They work with the pub­lic on crime-prevention mea­sures and edu­ca­tion, and often are the first respon­ders to seri­ous acci­dents and dan­ger­ous events. They’re a con­stant tar­get to crim­i­nals, which makes this pro­fes­sion very stressful.

6. Event Coordinator

Stress Score: 49.85

Aver­age Income: $45,260

An event coor­di­na­tor is respon­si­ble for plan­ning all logis­tics and activ­i­ties asso­ci­ated with the events for which he or she is respon­si­ble. Though they may con­duct many events through the year, any event may be a once-in-a-lifetime spe­cial occa­sion for the peo­ple involved. There­fore, events often have very high vis­i­bil­ity and high stakes for the coor­di­na­tor involved.

7. Pub­lic Rela­tions Executive

Stress Score: 47.56

Aver­age Income: $91,810

Pub­lic Rela­tions Offi­cers are respon­si­ble for cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing a pos­i­tive image with the pub­lic for com­pa­nies, non-profits and gov­ern­ment agen­cies. They typ­i­cally are respon­si­ble for giv­ing pre­sen­ta­tions and mak­ing speeches, often in front of large crowds. This very com­pet­i­tive field, which often includes highly vis­i­ble, tight dead­lines, keeps stress at high-levels for spe­cial­ists. Some PR exec­u­tives are required to inter­act with poten­tially hos­tile mem­bers of the media, espe­cially after a disaster.

8. Cor­po­rate Exec­u­tive (Senior)

Stress Score: 47.41

Aver­age Income: $165,830

Cor­po­rate Exec­u­tives are in charge of for­mu­lat­ing the poli­cies and strate­gies for their com­pa­nies, while also direct­ing the oper­a­tions. Senior exec­u­tives are expected to have an in-depth knowl­edge of many dif­fer­ent fields at once. They face pres­sure to make company-wide deci­sions that can have far-reaching effects for the employ­ees, includ­ing layoffs.

9. Pho­to­jour­nal­ist

Stress Score: 47.09

Aver­age Income: $40,000

Pho­to­jour­nal­ists cap­ture their sto­ries through the lens of a cam­era. They are often on the front­lines of dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tions in order to get the story, such as fires and bat­tle­fields. Dan­ger in the field, tight dead­lines and poten­tial tech­no­log­i­cal glitches are fac­tors why their jobs can be con­sid­ered stressful.

10. Taxi Driver

Stress Score: 46.25

Aver­age Income: $22,440

Nav­i­gat­ing through the maze of a city or the out­skirts of the sub­urbs, a taxi dri­ver dri­ves to loca­tions near and far to pick up and drop off pas­sen­gers by request. They’re also the No. 1 tar­get for crime in most cities and are required to work long hours to earn min­i­mal pay.

What about the least stress­ful jobs of 2012?

1. Med­ical Records Technician

Stress Score: 7.52

Aver­age Income: $32,350

Main­tains com­plete, accu­rate, and up-to-date med­ical records for use in treat­ment, billing, and sta­tis­ti­cal surveys.

2. Jew­eler

Stress Score: 8.21

Aver­age Income: $35,170

Man­u­fac­tures and repairs rings, bracelets, pins, and neck­laces using pre­cious or semi-precious met­als and stones.

3. Hair Stylist

Stress Score: 8.63

Aver­age Income: $22,760

Cre­ates hair styles, and advises clients about car­ing for their hair between appointments.

4. Dressmaker-Tailor

Stress Score: 8.65

Aver­age Income: $26,560

Fol­lows design instruc­tions, oper­ates a sewing machine to join, rein­force, and dec­o­rate parts of gar­ments or other textiles.

5. Med­ical Lab­o­ra­tory Technician

Stress Score: 9.33

Aver­age Income: $36,280

Con­ducts rou­tine lab­o­ra­tory tests and analy­sis used in the detec­tion, diag­no­sis, and treat­ment of disease.

6. Audi­ol­o­gist

Stress Score: 9.37

Aver­age Income: $66,660

An Audi­ol­o­gist diag­noses and treats hear­ing prob­lems by attempt­ing to dis­cover the range, nature, and degree of hear­ing func­tion. The job is not typ­i­cally phys­i­cally demand­ing or stress­ful, but it does require a keen atten­tion to detail and focused concentration.

7. Pre­ci­sion Assembler

Stress Score: 9.40

Aver­age Income: $31,250

Works on sub-assembly or final assem­bly of prod­ucts such as machin­ery, elec­tronic equip­ment, or aircraft.

8. Dietit­ian

Stress Score: 10.27

Aver­age Income: $53,250

Dieti­tians assess patients’ dietary needs, plans menus and instructs patients and their fam­i­lies about proper nutri­tional care. They mostly work in hos­pi­tals, nurs­ing care facil­i­ties, out­pa­tient care cen­ters, or physician’s offices. Dieti­tians typ­i­cally work a stan­dard sched­ule dur­ing the week, although some work week­ends as well.

9. Fur­ni­ture Upholsterer

Stress Score: 10.30

Aver­age Income: $29,960

Builds new fur­ni­ture and restores worn fur­ni­ture using a thor­ough knowl­edge of fab­rics and man­u­fac­tur­ing techniques.

10. Elec­tri­cal Technician

Stress Score: 10.38

Aver­age Income: $56,040

Devel­ops, assem­bles, and tests elec­tri­cal equip­ment accord­ing to prin­ci­ples of elec­tri­cal engineering.