http://www.careercast.com/jobs/content/JobsRated_10BestJobs

Remember that kid in elementary school who always had a pencil and calculator nearby, and while the rest of us drew pictures, read comic books or played cards, that kid was happily crunching numbers -- for fun. Fast forward 20 years or so, and it turns out that kid probably has one of best careers around today, according to an exclusive new study of the nation's best and worst jobs.

Compiling research on 200 different positions, this year's JobsRated.com report ranks mathematician as the country's best job, followed by actuary and statistician -- three jobs for which a calculator and solitude are prerequisites. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Monty Python troupe made famous the song, "I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK." Unfortunately, our study finds that lumberjacks have the nation's worst job, followed by dairy farmers and taxi drivers, which seems to bear out the old grade-school adage that "it's better to earn a living with your head rather than with your hands."

Of course, it doesn't take much effort to determine that mathematician is a more attractive job to most people than lumberjack. But ranking 200 jobs from best to worst is no easy feat. To compile this year's report, researchers relied on five criteria to compare jobs as different as librarian and sheet metal worker. Those criteria: stress, physical demands, hiring outlook, compensation and work environment .