After the initial shock to the job market in the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. unemployment rate began to recover, returning to pre-pandemic levels. As of April 2022, the unemployment rate was 3.6%, roughly in line with the rate throughout 2019 and early 2020.

As the job market recovered throughout 2021, there were a handful of professions that helped lower the unemployment rate. According to data from the Bureau of Labor statistics, there were dozens of career fields that had unemployment rates well below 2% in 2021.

To determine the jobs with the best job security, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on unemployment rate for over 500 detailed occupations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey.

Most of the jobs with the best job security are in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields – particularly medical careers like pharmacists and nurse practitioners, as well as tech jobs like software developers and IT security analysts. These highly-specialized fields tend to pay well, mostly  above the median annual wage across all jobs of $56,310. These are the 25 highest paying jobs in America.

Nearly all of the jobs with the best job security typically require at least some form of secondary education – anywhere from an associate’s degree to a doctorate degree. However, a handful of these positions generally do not require any education beyond a high school diploma. These are the highest paying jobs you can get without a college degree.

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