The 10 Least Common Jobs in the U.S.

Technically, the least common jobs in the U.S. are those that don’t exist anymore—ice cutters, town criers, switchboard operators, and other gigs that society has progressed past the need for.

Of the jobs that people still actually have, though, wood patternmaking just might be the rarest. According to Visual Capitalist, there were only 260 wood patternmakers working in the U.S. in 2023, the lowest of any job tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That said, the number could be a little higher: The BLS bases its stats on survey responses from business owners, excluding anyone self-employed, owners of unincorporated businesses, and household workers.

Wood patternmakers make wooden objects (i.e. patterns) used to create molds (often of sand) for castings. The wooden pattern is shaped exactly like whatever your final (often metal) product will be—so you embed the pattern into the mold, remove the pattern, and then pour the molten metal into that newly empty, perfectly shaped space. Patternmakers are few and far between today due in part to more advanced technological processes for their kind of work, and also because the U.S. outsources more of its manufacturing to other countries than it used to.

Not all the jobs on the list are uncommon because they’re inching toward obsolescence. For some, it’s because they’re incredibly difficult. Becoming a pediatric surgeon—10th on the list, with fewer than 1200 practitioners in 2023—takes nine years after medical school. They must be certified as both general surgeons and pediatric surgeons, and they don’t specialize by organ or region: They train to operate “from the neck to the pelvic region,” per Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.

See what other occupations made the list below—plus how much money you might make from doing them—and see the full study via Visual Capitalist.