人的一生要从事多少种工作?

    Do Americans really go through careers like they do cars or refrigerators?
    As workers take in the latest round of monthly unemployment data over Labor¹ Day weekend, Americans are focused on volatility² in the job market. Much of what they hear points to growing job instability and increased autonomy of workers. Among the most-repeated claims is that the average U.S. worker will have many careers -- seven is the most widely cited number -- in his or her lifetime.
    Jobs researchers say the basis of the number is a mystery. 'Seven careers per person sounds utterly³ implausible to me,' says Ann Stevens, professor and chair of the economics department at the University of California, Davis.
    Yet the estimate has had extraordinary staying power. One reason is that no one knows for sure the true average number of careers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Labor Department's data arm, doesn't track lifetime careers. Even so, the figure is erroneously attributed to BLS so often that the agency includes a corrective memo⁴ on its website, explaining that 'no consensus⁵ has emerged on what constitutes a career change.'
    What researchers do know is that job changes are common early in a person's working years: Three in four workers age 16 to 19, and half between 20 and 24, have been with their current employers for under a year, the BLS says.
    But early, frequent switches, which can include jumps by students between summer jobs, aren't what many people would consider career changes in the same way as a midlife switch after a decade or two in the same job. The latter type can entail⁶ major costs in retraining and pay cuts -- plus, in the current job climate, the risk of not finding employment. It is difficult to imagine, researchers say, that the typical worker undertakes a major switch seven times.
    Surveys of workers could be easily skewed by a small number of zealous⁷ career changers. Adding to the confusion, economists⁹ say, is that workers sometimes take on enough new responsibilities to meet a technical definition of a career change without leaving their general field.
    The BLS offers on its website the example of an economist⁸ who is promoted to an administrative¹⁰ position, changing her job function even if her title remains¹¹ economist.
    'The problem is career change is tricky¹² to define,' says Solomon Polachek, a professor of economics and political science at Binghamton University in New York, who nonetheless calls the seven-career figure 'a considerable overestimate¹³.'
    And without hard data, anecdotal reports that point to an expanding career-change mentality¹⁴ in the U.S. have taken on a life of their own. The notion of continual career switches is repeated in particular by career-management experts, whose jobs involve spending a lot of time with occupation switchers. 'Based on my experience, I believe the typical person has six to seven careers, and the number is growing,' says Jeff Neil, a New York City career counselor¹⁵, in an email.
    He describes one 30-year-old client, currently working as a manager of a doctor's office, who is exploring a new professional path. Previously¹⁶, she worked in real-estate sales, at a talent agency, a sports-car dealership¹⁷ and as a sales representative at top-end health clubs. Mr. Neil adds that while multiple shifts are more the norm than the exception, he couldn't say for certain without formally researching the issue.
    While data on career changes are scarce, economists and statisticians have examined how often Americans shift jobs. The U.S. Census¹⁸ Bureau asks some respondents to its Current Population Survey who are employed how long they have been 'working continuously' for their current employer.
    These surveys have been used by researchers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and elsewhere to count the total number of jobs in a lifetime. Their findings suggest that job stability hasn't changed all that much in the U.S. since the late 1990s. For example, the typical American worker's tenure¹⁹ with his or her current employer was 3.8 years in 1996, 3.5 years in 2000 and 4.1 years in 2008, the latest available data.
    BLS economist Chuck Pierret has been conducting a study to better assess U.S. workers' job stability over time, interviewing 10,000 individuals, first surveyed in 1979, when group members were between 14 and 22 years old. So far, members of the group have held 10.8 jobs, on average, between ages 18 and 42, using the latest data available.
    Dr. Pierret points out that these workers' experience might not apply to entrants to today's job market. The bureau is just starting to track job changes for people born between 1980 and 1984. But in yet another example of the difficulty of measuring career stability, the recent recession may have skewed things so much that long-term trends will be masked.
    'Enough of their working lives have been affected²⁰ by the downturn,' Dr. Pierret says of the 20-somethings in the study, 'that it may be not so comparable.'
 

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。

3 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

4 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

5 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

6 entail   

vt.使承担，使成为必要，需要

参考例句：

• Such a decision would entail a huge political risk.这样的决定势必带来巨大的政治风险。
• This job would entail your learning how to use a computer.这工作将需要你学会怎样用计算机。

7 zealous   

adj.狂热的，热心的

参考例句：

• She made zealous efforts to clean up the classroom.她非常热心地努力清扫教室。
• She is a zealous supporter of our cause.她是我们事业的热心支持者。

8 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

9 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

11 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

12 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

13 overestimate   

v.估计过高，过高评价

参考例句：

• Don't overestimate seriousness of the problem.别把问题看重了。
• We overestimate our influence and our nuisance value.我们过高地估计了自己的影响力和破坏作用。

14 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

15 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

16 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

17 dealership   

n.商品特许经销处

参考例句：

• The car dealership has a large inventory of used cars. 这家汽车经销商拥有数量庞大的二手车。
• A key to this effort is the experience in the dealership. 达到这个成果的关键是销售的体验。

18 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

19 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

20 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。