August 30, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Younger boomers: 10.2 jobs from ages 18-38

Persons born from 1957 to 1964 held an average of 10.2 jobs from ages 18 to 38.

[Chart data—TXT]

These younger baby boomers held an average of 4.4 jobs while ages 18 to 22. The average fell to 3.3 jobs while ages 23 to 27, to 2.6 jobs while ages 28 to 32, and to 2.5 jobs from ages 33 to 38.

Jobs that span more than one age group were counted once in each age group, so the overall average number of jobs held from age 18 to age 38 is less than the sum of the number of jobs across the individual age groups.

On average, men held 10.4 jobs and women 9.9 jobs from age 18 to 38. Men held 4.5 jobs from age 18 to age 22, but only 2.5 jobs from age 33 to 38. The reduction in the number of jobs held in successive age groups was similar for women.

These findings are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. For more information see "Number of Jobs Held, Labor Market Activity, and Earnings Growth Among Younger Baby Boomers: Recent Results From a Longitudinal Survey" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-1678. Note that, in this article, a job is defined as an uninterrupted period of work with a particular employer.

 

Related TED article:

• Employment duration of younger baby boomers