37 jobs that are great for people who love the outdoors
- Not all jobs require you to sit at a desk all day, and there are plenty of careers where employees do most of their work outside.
- We took a look at which occupations are best suited for those who want to be outdoors for much of the workday, using data from the US Labor Department's Occupational Information Network.
- Crossing guards, farmers, and several occupations in the oil and gas industry made the list.
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Summer is in full swing, and while many people are taking advantage of the sunny weather at beaches and social distancing with friends outside as the novel coronavirus pandemic continues, some workers are out in the sun in jobs that require working outdoors full-time, year-round.
Business Insider decided to take a closer look at which occupations spend the most time outside and how much they earn.
The Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network (O*NET) collects and scores occupations based on the importance or frequency of different work activities, contexts, values, and styles. We used O*NET's work context scores for being outdoors to find out which occupations do most of their work outside. Higher values indicate a larger share of time at work spent outdoors, with 100 meaning working outside every day and zero meaning never working outside.
13 jobs on the list require being outside daily, indicated in the data with the maximum score of 100. Crossing guards were one of these occupations, and workers in this job make an average of $32,920 per year, according to May 2019 figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most recent data available.
Read on to find out the 37 jobs that require being outside the most, along with their average annual salaries from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and what they do according to O*NET. When there were ties in the outdoor scores, we ranked the occupations based on which job had the higher salary.
Outdoor score: 96
Average annual salary: $38,830
What they do, according to O*NET: Assess injuries, administer emergency medical care, and extricate trapped individuals.
Outdoor score: 96
Average annual salary: $54,210
What they do, according to O*NET: Operate one or several types of power construction equipment to excavate, move, and grade earth, erect structures, or pour concrete or other hard surface pavement.
Outdoor score: 96
Average annual salary: $59,670
What they do, according to O*NET: Install and repair telecommunications cable, including fiber optics.
Outdoor score: 96
Average annual salary: $62,710
What they do, according to O*NET: Operate steam, gas, electric motor, or internal combustion engine driven compressors; transmit, compress, or recover gases, such as butane, nitrogen, hydrogen, and natural gas.
Outdoor score: 96
Average annual salary: $72,690
What they do, according to O*NET: Install, inspect, test, maintain, or repair electric gate crossings, signals, signal equipment, track switches, section lines, or intercommunications systems within a railroad system.
Outdoor score: 96
Average annual salary: $80,360*
What they do, according to O*NET: Plan, organize, direct, control, and coordinate activities of workers engaged in propagating, cultivating, and harvesting horticultural specialties, such as trees, shrubs, flowers, mushrooms, and other plants.
*Average annual salary is from farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers.
Outdoor score: 97
Average annual salary: $57,690
What they do, according to O*NET: Patrol assigned area to prevent fish and game law violations; investigate reports of damage to crops or property by wildlife.
Outdoor score: 98
Average annual salary: $27,780*
What they do, according to O*NET: Manually plant, cultivate, and harvest vegetables, fruits, nuts and field crops.
*Average annual salary is for "farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse" from the BLS salary data, while the O*NET score is only for "farmworkers and laborers, crop."
Outdoor score: 98
Average annual salary: $30,230
What they do, according to O*NET: Drive truck or other vehicle over established routes or within an established territory and sell or deliver goods.
Outdoor score: 98
Average annual salary: $31,340*
What they do, according to O*NET: Hunt and trap wild animals for human consumption, fur, feed, bait, or other purposes.
*Average annual salary is from the overall major job category of farming, fishing, and forestry occupations.
Outdoor score: 98
Average annual salary: $42,510
What they do, according to O*NET: Using sophisticated climbing and rigging techniques, cut away dead or excess branches from trees or shrubs to maintain right-of-way for roads, sidewalks, or utilities, or to improve appearance, health, and value of tree.
Outdoor score: 98
Average annual salary: $48,890*
What they do, according to O*NET: Place and detonate explosives to demolish structures or to loosen, remove, or displace earth, rock, or other materials.
*Average annual salary is from "earth drillers, except oil and gas; and explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blastersworkers," while the O*NET score is only for "explosives workers, ordnance handling experts, and blastersworkers" because earth drillers had a lower outdoor score.
Outdoor score: 98
Average annual salary: $52,180
What they do, according to O*NET: Sort mail for delivery; deliver mail on established route by vehicle or on foot.
Outdoor score: 98
Average annual salary: $52,520*
What they do, according to O*NET: Directly supervise and coordinate activities of logging workers
*Average annual salary is from "first-line supervisors of farming, fishing, and forestry workers," while the O*NET score is only for "first-line supervisors of logging workers" because other first-line supervisors in this category had lower outdoor scores.
Outdoor score: 98
Average annual salary: $80,360
What they do, according to O*NET: Plan, direct, or coordinate the management or operation of farms, ranches, greenhouses, aquacultural operations, nurseries, timber tracts, or other agricultural establishments.
Outdoor score: 99
Average annual salary: $39,110
What they do, according to O*NET: Grade logs or estimate the marketable content or value of logs or pulpwood in sorting yards, millpond, log deck, or similar locations.
Outdoor score: 99
Average annual salary: $42,410
What they do, according to O*NET: Maintain highways, municipal and rural roads, airport runways, and rights-of-way.
Outdoor score: 99
Average annual salary: $42,760
What they do, according to O*NET: Clean and repair septic tanks, sewer lines, or drains. May patch walls and partitions of tank, replace damaged drain tile, or repair breaks in underground piping.
Outdoor score: 99
Average annual salary: $49,120
What they do, according to O*NET: Tend, control, or operate power-driven, stationary, or portable pumps and manifold systems to transfer gases, oil, other liquids, slurries, or powdered materials to and from various vessels and processes.
Outdoor score: 99
Average annual salary: $49,670
What they do, according to O*NET: Use axes or chainsaws to fell trees using knowledge of tree characteristics and cutting techniques to control direction of fall and minimize tree damage.
Outdoor score: 99
Average annual salary: $55,080
What they do, according to O*NET: Operate power pumps and auxiliary equipment to produce flow of oil or gas from wells in oil field.
Outdoor score: 99
Average annual salary: $56,470
What they do, according to O*NET: Lay and bind building materials, such as brick, structural tile, concrete block, cinder block, glass block, and terra-cotta block, with mortar and other substances to construct or repair walls, partitions, arches, sewers, and other structures.
Outdoor score: 99
Average annual salary: $57,070
What they do, according to O*NET: Set up or operate a variety of drills to remove underground oil and gas, or remove core samples for testing during oil and gas exploration.
Outdoor score: 99
Average annual salary: $57,160
What they do, according to O*NET: Lay, repair, and maintain track for standard or narrow-gauge railroad equipment used in regular railroad service or in plant yards, quarries, sand and gravel pits, and mines.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $32,360
What they do, according to O*NET: Landscape or maintain grounds of property using hand or power tools or equipment.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $32,920
What they do, according to O*NET: Guide or control vehicular or pedestrian traffic at such places as streets, schools, railroad crossings, or construction sites.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $41,280
What they do, according to O*NET: Assemble or repair oil field equipment using hand and power tools.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $41,400
What they do, according to O*NET: Collect and dump refuse or recyclable materials from containers into truck
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $43,420
What they do, according to O*NET: Patrol assigned area, such as public parking lot or city streets to issue tickets to overtime parking violators and illegally parked vehicles.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $43,600
What they do, according to O*NET: Lay pipe for storm or sanitation sewers, drains, and water mains.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $45,820
What they do, according to O*NET: Cover roofs of structures with shingles, slate, asphalt, aluminum, wood, or related materials.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $46,250
What they do, according to O*NET: Read meter and record consumption of electricity, gas, water, or steam.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $48,030
What they do, according to O*NET: Rig derrick equipment and operate pumps to circulate mud through drill hole.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $51,390
What they do, according to O*NET: Operate equipment to increase oil flow from producing wells or to remove stuck pipe, casing, tools, or other obstructions from drilling wells.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $53,250
What they do, according to O*NET: Stand watch to look for obstructions in path of vessel, measure water depth, turn wheel on bridge, or use emergency equipment as directed by captain, mate, or pilot. They also break out, rig, overhaul, and store cargo-handling gear, stationary rigging, and running gear.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $62,380
What they do, according to O*NET: Operate railroad track switches, couple or uncouple rolling stock to make up or break up trains, and signal engineers by hand or flagging.
Outdoor score: 100
Average annual salary: $70,230
What they do, according to O*NET: Operate pile drivers mounted on skids, barges, crawler treads, or locomotive cranes to drive pilings for retaining walls, bulkheads, and foundations of structures, such as buildings, bridges, and piers.