A good job often means different things to different people. Some job seekers will value schedule or location flexibility more than anything else, some may simply prefer to earn as much as they can, and still others might prefer jobs in growing fields that may offer more job security. But while good jobs may offer job seekers the ability to secure one of those priorities, the best jobs offer a compelling mix of all three: flexibility, pay and growth opportunities.

As the job market continues to cool, job seekers need help finding the best opportunities for them in 2026. Indeed’s 2026 Best Jobs index, compiled and calculated by Indeed Hiring Lab, analyzed millions of job postings from thousands of occupations to identify and quantify which jobs offer the best opportunities for a broad range of workers across dozens of sectors. Jobs were scored and ranked on an index based on the following five characteristics (with each factor’s weight in the final ranking in parentheses):

  • Median Pay (30%): The median annual salary in 2025.
  • Pay Growth (20%): How much the salary has increased over the last three years (2022 to 2025).
  • Current Demand (20%): The volume of job postings in 2025.
  • Demand Growth (20%): How fast the number of job postings has grown over the last three years (2022 to 2025).
  • Remote Work Availability (10%): The share of jobs offering work-from-home or hybrid options in 2025.

Our rationale for the different weights given to the various factors reflects what we know job seekers tend to look for and prioritize in their job search, and what is top of mind in this particular market. Because job seekers routinely cite compensation as the most important factor in assessing a job’s quality, we gave the highest weight to estimated median salary. Equal weighting was given to current demand, pay growth, and demand growth (20% each), with the understanding that it’s often not enough for a job simply to pay well; there must be ample opportunity to get hired and confidence that the job will be valuable in the future. Finally, we put a 10% weight on remote work availability, which remains an important factor in job quality for many, but isn’t always feasible for some roles and is less critical to most than pay and opportunity.

Once the pool of eligible jobs was defined (filtering out jobs with low counts and other outliers), data was aggregated using a logarithmic utility function, which reflects the principle of diminishing marginal returns. This specification recognizes that incremental improvements in any single dimension provide decreasing additional value. For example, a $10k salary increase from $50k to $60k per year contributes more to the index than the same absolute increase from $150k to $160k.

Our US analysis focuses on hourly paid occupations — more than half of US workers are paid at hourly rates, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In other countries, we have included other wage types, reflecting different labor market idiosyncrasies across countries. For consistency, we annualized all hourly wages by multiplying by 2,000 (the standard number of full-time work hours per year). Jobs were then ranked according to their composite index scores.

After the ranking was determined, the editorial team of each country applied further country-specific criteria. For instance, jobs were excluded from consideration for the US list if they did not meet the following criteria:

  • Yearly salary was below the US median annual salary of ~$65,000, as defined by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. A “best” job should earn better-than-median pay.
  • Advanced education/training beyond 7-8 years (i.e., roles that require a full professional doctorate or a medical degree, plus extensive post-graduate residency/training). The list still includes many higher-earning roles that do require shorter-duration training and educational requirements. But we omitted jobs with the most onerous educational and experiential requirements in order to arrive at a list of broadly accessible roles for most workers. 
  • Role/title redundancy and similarity (e.g., inclusion of only ‘Rad Tech’ over MRI tech, CT tech, X-ray tech, etc.). These redundant roles were omitted to allow for a more diversified list to appeal to more job seekers.

This subjective ranking reflects specific methodological choices, including the functional form of the utility function and the weights assigned to each variable. Individual workers may have different preferences or weigh these factors differently. Filters to avoid outliers and additional editorial choices helped further subset the data.  

The 2026 Best Jobs list features a diverse range of jobs across various critical sectors, accessible to a wide range of workers. Overall, these jobs reflect a complex labor market that emphasizes specialized expertise and human connection across multiple tasks. For job seekers in 2026, the best opportunities will come from building in-demand skills, choosing paths with clear advancement, and targeting roles that are essential to how organizations operate. This year’s list shows that employers are favoring roles that are resilient, skills-driven, and tied to real-world demand. Many of the top jobs fall into healthcare, skilled trades, and applied tech, showing that employers are prioritizing roles that directly support essential services, technological growth, or long-term infrastructure. Many of these jobs offer clear pathways to advancement — whether that’s moving into leadership, specialization, or independent practice.