For World Logic Day: Jobs for critical and analytical thinkers

January 14 is World Logic Day, which acknowledges the contributions of logic to fields such as engineering, mathematics, and philosophy—as well as everyday life! Critical and analytical thinking skills help people use logic and reasoning to analyze information, identify strengths and weaknesses of various approaches and solutions to problems, and draw conclusions. In recognition of World Logic Day, let’s look at some occupations for which critical and analytical thinking skills are particularly important, according to new BLS skills data.

Software developers was one of the largest occupations for critical and analytical thinkers, with nearly 1.7 million jobs. The largest occupations for critical and analytical thinkers also included medical and health services managers (515,100), chief executives (211,230), and operations research analysts (117,880). Mathematicians, agricultural engineers, and industrial-organizational psychologists were much smaller occupations, with about 2,200 or fewer jobs each.

All of the selected occupations for critical and analytical thinkers had annual mean wages above the U.S. average of $65,470. These high wages may reflect the high skill level of these occupations, typically gained through postsecondary education: all of the occupations shown typically require at least a bachelor’s degree for entry, and some, such as epidemiologists and physicists, typically require a master’s degree or doctoral or professional degree. Chief executives, with an annual mean wage of $258,900, was among the highest paying of the selected occupations, along with physicists ($158,270), computer and information research scientists ($157,160), and industrial-organizational psychologists ($154,380). Lower paying occupations for critical and analytical thinkers included legislators ($68,140); mathematical science occupations, all other ($83,330); and epidemiologists ($90,430).

Employment in most of these occupations is projected to grow faster or much faster than the average of 4 percent for all occupations from 2023 to 2033. Three occupations are projected to grow about as fast as the average: chief executives, mathematicians, and legislators. Mining and geological engineers is projected to have slower-than-average growth, while employment of nuclear engineers is projected to decline.

This TED features occupations for which the importance of critical and analytical thinking skills is at the 98th percentile or higher, based on new skills data from the Employment Projections program. Skills scores for some occupations were imputed from similar occupations. For more information, see “A new data product for occupational skills: methodology, analysis, and a guide to using the employment projections skills data.” Employment and wage estimates are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, and typical entry-level educational requirements and projected employment change over the 2023–33 decade are from Employment Projections.