10 jobs in 25 years

Over a period of 25 years, the average person -- aged 39 to 48 at the conclusion of a national survey -- held 10.5 jobs.

That figure by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, came from a study that tracked the employment histories of younger Baby Boomers  from 1979 to 2005.

It found that job tenure tended to increase with age but that percentage growth in inflation-adjusted hourly earnings generally did not.  As might be expected, the survey found that job changes were most frequent in workers' younger years. The participants reported an average of 3.8 jobs while they were 18-21 and an average of three jobs while they were 22-25.

The study's primary finding was that individuals born from 1957 to 1964 held an average of 10.5 jobs while they were 18-40 years old.  The study relied on annual or biennial interviews with 9,964 U.S. workers who were 14-22 when first interviewed and 39-48 when interviewed most recently. 

According to the study, a job was defined as an "uninterrupted period of work with a particular employer." Therefore, a change of position within the same company during an unbroken job tenure was not counted as a different job.

Source: The Detroit Free Press, August 27, 2006