October 29, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Average work
experience rises in recent years
Since the
mid-1980s, the average number of years of job experience has increased for
both men and women who work in the private sector.
[Chart data—TXT]
Mean years of work experience for women in the private-sector workforce
rose from 11.7 in 1985 to 12.5 in 1997—a rise of 0.8 year. For men, the
increase was nearly twice as large. The average level of job experience of
men at work in the private sector rose from 17.4 years in 1985 to 18.8
years in 1997, a gain of 1.4 years.
The aging of baby boomers helps to explain the rise in average years of
work experience. During the 1980s and 1990s, the baby boomers went from
being a large group of inexperienced workers to becoming a middle-aged and
experienced group, and average work experience levels consequently grew.
These data are a product of the BLS Multifactor
Productivityprogram. Find out more
in Chapter 2 of Report on the American Workforce 1999.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »
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