When it comes to their future careers, many teens are going to be in for a rude awakening, new research suggests.
While they may dream of being a musician, athlete or fashion designer, research shows that eventually many give up on those aspirations and end up taking jobs that are much less glamorous, according to a study from a C+R Research.
The study shows that the jobs most teens want don't fit into the current workplace reality. For example, just 1 percent of the teens surveyed want an office, support administrative or sales position when they start their careers, despite those jobs making up 25 percent of today's workforce.
On the flip side, 20 percent of those surveyed want a job in the arts, design, entertainment, sports and media occupations, even though those careers represent just 2 percent of the American workforce. [See Related Story: 5 Proven Ways to Land the Job of Your Dreams]
"Getting paid to do what you love – isn't that everyone's dream?" the study's authors wrote. "Unfortunately, only 2 percent of jobs in the current workforce fall under this category, which means at some point, most adults have to decide to earn a living doing something more readily available and realistic."
Doctor, nurse, dentist, pharmacist and veterinarian are other jobs many teens dream of having. The study found that 15 percent of teens want jobs as health care practitioners despite it only making up 6 percent of the total workforce.
The researchers said it's not surprising that so many teens would want a career that allows them to help people and get paid well at the same time.
"However, the rigor, length, and incredible expense of additional schooling are some of the biggest deterrents to why only 6 percent of people who want to become a healthcare practitioner actually do," the study's authors wrote.
Just 7 percent of the teens surveyed said they wanted a career in one of the 25 most common jobs in the U.S.:
- Retail salespeople
- Office clerks
- Registered nurses
- Customer service reps
- Waiters and waitresses
- Secretaries and administrators
- Freight and stock laborers
- Janitors
- Operations managers
- Stock clerks and order fillers
- Truck drivers
- Personal care aides
- Bookkeepers and accounting clerks
- Nursing assistants
- Maids and housekeepers
- Sales reps, wholesale and manufacturing
- Maintenance and repair workers
- Elementary school teachers
- Accountants
- Child care workers
- Teacher assistants
- Landscapers and groundskeepers
- Construction workers
- Cooks
- Security guards
Of those positions, the only ones teens mentioned as wanting a career in were registered nursing, sales, wholesale, manufacturing, elementary school teaching, accounting and construction.
The researchers said that some occupations are likely low on the "dream meter" because the jobs don't seem ambitious or glamorous enough.
"The fact is that there's a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into the convenient, fast-paced lives we take for granted," the study's authors wrote. "While no teens responded that they want a job in installation, maintenance, and repair occupations, the infrastructure of our daily lives would collapse without these types of occupations."
Besides not wanting jobs that are common now, even fewer teens want jobs that will be in demand in the future. Only 3 percent of the teens surveyed said they wanted a career in one of the 25 jobs that are projected to grow the most over the next seven years:
- Wind turbine service technicians
- Occupational therapy assistants
- Physical therapist assistants
- Physical therapist aides
- Home health aides
- Commercial divers
- Nurse practitioner
- Physical therapists
- Statisticians
- Ambulance drivers
- Physician assistants
- Operations research analysts
- Personal financial advisers
- Cartographers
- Genetic counselors
- Interpreters and translators
- Audiologists
- Hearing aid specialists
- Optometrists
- Web developers
- Forensic science technicians
- Occupational therapists
- Diagnostic medical sonographers
- Personal care aides
- Phlebotomists
Of those jobs, the only ones teens said they want to pursue in the future are nurse practitioner, physical therapist, statistician, physician assistant, web developer and forensic science technician.
The study was based on surveys of 400 U.S. teens. It included data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Internal Revenue Service.
