A Jan 2013 study by US News & World Report has included HR among 100 best jobs of 2013. With reference to US, the study cites some encouraging data as shared by The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in US. According to the report, “BLS projects 20.5 percent employment growth in this field between 2010 and 2020. That's 61,600 new jobs and 36,700 replacement jobs. There were 436,090 HR specialists in 2011. This is expected to be a rapid-growth field as the economy continues to recover from the recession.” This indicates that HR professionals can expect to see more job options in 2013 and further. The study compiles the facts and figures related to the US. Still, its findings have some clues for the future of HR in India where companies have started seeing HR as a potent tool to maintain their human resources.

The US News & Report’s study isn't the only list of recent times that has included HR in the ‘best jobs’ list. The study doesn't focus on the employment outlook alone. The rankings are based on the overall score of various components like 10 year growth volume, 10 year growth percentage, future job prospects, stress level, work-life balance, median salary and employment rate. HR has fared well on almost all of these components.

Last year, website careercast included HR Manager in its Top 10 Best Jobs list. Forbes included the job of HR Manager among top 20 best paying jobs in 2012. Most of these top jobs lists take crucial components such as job outlook, risk involved in the job, stress levels and physical demands of a profession in consideration. What makes HR secure a place on such lists? Is it the pay-scale, opportunity for work-life balance, or job profile? In her article on the 10 best jobs of 2012, written on the careercast website, Victoria Brienza shares her viewpoint on HR winning top ranks in such lists, “If you mix their job outlook scores with their income levels and throw in the low physical demands, relatively safe work environment and low-to-moderate stress levels, HR Managers should rightly be listed as a Best Job.”

An HR professional’s job profile has its share of challenges. Like any other job, front-line HR professionals and senior HR executives too have their share of anxieties and deadline pressures. When asked if such assumptions about lives of HR professionals are true in the Indian context, Swati Singh, HR manager with a leading Telecom company in Pune says, “HR professionals have to wear many hats. Like any other job, they have to juggle between many responsibilities. However, I feel a sense of power being in my job because my job profile allows me to have a say in many things, which might not be the case with many other departments.”

Swati’s views might be a strictly personal, but as such rankings highlight time and again, HR (and an HR professional) has a promising future ahead of them.