With the gloom and doom besetting the legal profession, one bright spot is perhaps worth noting. According to a '99 paper,The Impact of Specific Occupation on Mortality in the U.S> National Longitudinal Mortality Study, quoted by Robin Hanson, being a lawyer seems to be just about the healthiest profession you could have.
If I interpret the graph in Hanson's post correctly, being a lawyer is associated with about a 30% decrease in death rate, compared with the population average. This appears to be the case with or without adjusting for age, gender, race, income, and education. Other healthy jobs include MathSciLib (math/science librarians?), RelgSocSv (religious social service providers?), OffManNEC (?), MedEqMchn (medical equipment mechanics?), and farmers, but—perhaps surprisingly—not physicians.
Equally surprising are some of the high death risk jobs. Why do office workers have a 120% (unadjusted)/60% (adjusted) increase in death risk? Why do food service workers suffer a 160%(unadjusted)/55% (adjusted) increase? While fire fighters and police only have their risk increased by 40%(unadjusted)/10% (adjusted)?
