Job search rate declines with age

Age has a strong relationship to the likelihood that a worker will look for a new job. Teenagers were nearly 5 times as likely to be looking for a new job than were workers 65 years of age and older in 1999 (5.9 versus 1.2 percent).

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The chance that a worker will look for a new job peaks in the 20-to-24 years age group. After that, the job search rate goes down for every older age group in turn.

The higher job search rates among younger workers may reflect their tendency to experiment with careers until they find jobs that best match their economic and social needs.

The data on active job search by employed wage and salary workers are from supplements to the Current Population Survey. Active job-search methods include, among others, contacting an employer directly, registering at a public or private employment agency, sending out resumes, filling out applications, and placing or answering ads. Learn more about job hunting by employed workers in "Looking for a better’ job: job search activity of the employed," by Joseph R. Meisenheimer II and Randy E. Ilg, Monthly Labor Review, September 2000.