Jobs with the most self-paced work: where workers, not people or machines, set the workload.
Detailed occupations ranked by the share of workers whose workload was self-paced (rather than set by people, machines, software or numeric targets), with the ability to pause work and pay.
BLS estimates 99.2% of workers in marketing managers (SOC 11-2021) had a self-paced workload, the highest of 125 occupations with an exact estimate; across all workers the share is 18.5% (ORS 2025, preliminary).
25 rows
Data Computed by TryHired from BLS data. Download the CSV.
| Occupation | Self-paced workload | Ability to pause work | BLS median pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing Manager | 99.2% | more than 99.5% | $166,790 |
| Architectural and engineering managers | 97.8% | more than 95% | $171,270 |
| Industrial Production Manager | 97.0% | more than 99.5% | $126,060 |
| Administrative services managers | 96.8% | more than 99.5% | $114,130 |
| Sales Manager | 96.4% | more than 99.5% | $148,270 |
| Education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare | 96.2% | 95.6% | $59,300 |
| IT Manager | 96.1% | more than 99.5% | $175,140 |
| Education administrators, postsecondary | 95.6% | more than 90% | $104,590 |
| Lodging managers | 92.9% | 97.7% | $69,250 |
| Transportation, storage, and distribution managers | 91.9% | more than 95% | $107,230 |
| Industrial Engineer | 91.9% | more than 99.5% | $102,440 |
| HR Manager | 91.0% | more than 99.5% | $149,280 |
| Managers, all other | 90.4% | more than 95% | $141,900 |
| Operations Manager | 87.7% | 95.7% | $105,770 |
| Fundraiser | 87.7% | more than 99.5% | $72,550 |
| Management Consultant | 87.5% | more than 99.5% | $101,860 |
| Financial Manager | 87.4% | 98.8% | $166,570 |
| Facilities Manager | 87.1% | more than 95% | $106,660 |
| Social and community service managers | 84.1% | 97.3% | $80,390 |
| Principal | 83.1% | 92.1% | $105,870 |
| First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers | 82.6% | more than 99.5% | $87,520 |
| Purchasing Manager | 80.1% | more than 99.5% | $148,080 |
| Public Relations Specialist | 79.9% | more than 99.5% | $74,750 |
| Hospital Administrator | 79.7% | 93.0% | $123,860 |
| Marketing Specialist | 77.2% | more than 99.5% | $78,760 |
Data Where BLS cannot publish an exact value it publishes a range, shown here in words (for example “less than 0.5%” or “more than 99.5%”). Ranges are BLS’s one-sided 90% confidence bounds; TryHired never converts them to a single number. For sorting only, a range is placed at its bound.
How this page is built
Self-paced workload: ORS control-of-workload category where the worker most determines how much work is performed (other categories: people, machinery/equipment/software, numerical performance targets, other). Ability to pause: pause control, the flexibility to take short, unscheduled breaks. Only exact (non-range) self-paced estimates are ranked; detailed 2018 SOC occupations. No causal claims: these are descriptive estimates. Data status: BLS publishes these as preliminary estimates: the aggregate of two annual samples collected between August 2023 and July 2025, part of the third ORS wave. Values may change when the full wave is final. BLS advises against comparing them with earlier ORS releases. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025 national median for the same SOC code (not published separately for some ORS occupations). Outlook: BLS Employment Projections 2025–35. BLS data are in the public domain.
- Whether a specific employer offers it: ORS estimates describe workers in an occupation nationally, not any one job opening.
- Health, disability or medical suitability: these are job requirements, not advice about whether a job suits a medical condition.
- Final values: the 2025 estimates are preliminary and may change when BLS completes the third wave.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Requirements Survey, 2025 estimates (preliminary: two of the third wave's samples, collected August 2023 to July 2025; released January 16, 2026), public domain.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections program, occupational projections 2025–35.