Today's Labor Force

From 1978 to 2002, Americans aged eighteen to thirty-eight years of age had held an average of 10.2 different jobs. Men had held 10.4 jobs on average, and women had held 9.9 jobs. Those who eventually obtained college degrees usually worked at more places between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two (4.6 jobs for men, 5.4 jobs for women) than those of the same ages who graduated from high school but did not attend college (4.5 jobs for men, 3.8 jobs for women). (See Table 1.23.) This may reflect the historical fact that college students tend to obtain summer employment and even part-time jobs during the academic year.

At older ages, the number of jobs did not vary much by education. For example, among workers between the ages of thirty-three and thirty-eight, the number of jobs held by men who graduated high school but did not attend college was the same as college graduates (2.4). Women high school graduates held 2.5 jobs, as compared with only slightly fewer (2.2) held by college graduates TABLE 1.11 Employment status of mothers with children under 3 years old by age of youngest child and marital status, 2003–04 "Table 6. Employment Status of Mothers with Own Children under 3 Years Old by Single Year of Age of Youngest Child and Marital Status, 2003–04 Annual Averages," in Employment Characteristics of Families in 2004, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 9, 2005, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/famee.pdf (accessed January 9, 2006)during that age period. These figures may reflect the attainment of more stable jobs at the older ages. (See Table 1.23.)