For the fourth consecutive year, “Businessperson” has been cited as the most popular career choice for American teens.
That’s one of the key findings of an annual survey of teenagers on topics such as career expectations and their opinions about the world of business. The study, the 2006 Junior Achievement Worldwide Interprise Poll on Kids and Careers, also revealed that for the first time in the seven-year history of the survey, salary expectations for young women are on a par with those of young men.
Since first being measured in the 2003 poll, male salary expectations for most jobs have tended to exceed earnings anticipated by female teens. However, in this year’s version, the highest earnings expectations for frequently cited careers, such as business, law, entertainment or medicine, are split fairly evenly between genders.
Over the past four years, the top- 10 career selections have remained fairly constant. “Businessperson” has been the most popular career choice overall for the last four years the poll has been conducted; this year it was selected by 8.7 percent.
“Teacher” was the second-highest...