FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The numbers are tough. The nation has lost millions of jobs in the past two years.


You're probably content if you squeaked by with almost any sort of job, even if your pay took a hit.

But it's a new year. And squeaking by isn't much of a long-term career strategy.

If you resolved to get a better job in 2010, you can make that choice wisely.

That decision begins with an honest look at your interests and qualifications. And it might mean going back to college to get the right sort of education.

What are the jobs that offer high pay? And what kind of education -- and at what cost -- will you need?

A lot of them are in health care. Registered nurses, physicians, pharmacists, dentists and veterinarians are all on the list. Highest paying: an oral surgeon, whose average pay last year was close to $232,000.

Jobs that are plentiful and pay the most, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, include stalwarts such as health-care professions that have held up in the recession.

But jobs in other fields -- such as accounting and teaching -- also do well.

The hottest help-wanted categories that employers were posting recently on Yahoo Hot Jobs included sales and retail positions.

Next, consider the cost of the first step toward a job that pays well: a college education.

The latest figures, from a College Board study in 2007, show that a college graduate's typical pay, $50,900, is more than 50 percent higher than a high-school graduate's pay, $31,500.

But how you pay for that education makes a huge difference in what you eventually get back for your effort.

Here's how it might play out for a job-seeker in one category: lawyers. Going to law school will cost you. Three years of tuition and room and board and fees and books might run $180,000 or more.

Let's say you borrowed a third, or $60,000. If this is a Stafford federal student loan at a current rate, your monthly payment after graduation would be $690.48, according to finaid.org.

That would consume more than 16 percent of your after-tax salary, if you snagged a job that paid the median entry-level salary for lawyers, which is about $69,000.

Law is a great career. But if you plan to become a lawyer, do it with full knowledge of what that expensive education eventually will mean to your personal finances.

The story would be the same for many fast-growing careers. Accountants and auditors, for example, might find their repayment options limited on the $40,829 median starting salary last year. The same would be true for dentists, whose starting salary was around $56,000.

It takes 10 years to pay off the typical student loan.

A recent report from the U.S. Department of Education notes that 12 percent of all student borrowers who began repayment in 2007 had gone into default, up from 9.2 percent the previous year.

The lesson is to know what your future job pays before you commit to an expensive education or training course. If you don't know, check Web sites such as Payscale.com or Monster.com's "salary wizard" to get a specific idea. Both can be used free, or in paid versions for more detail.