POLL RESULTS More girls than boys say they need degree

Black youngsters were the most optimistic about achieving their ideal job.
A new poll from Junior Achievement points to a growing gender gap between girls and boys when it comes to careers requiring higher education. In all, 73.9 percent of girls believe they need a four-year degree or graduate degree to obtain their dream job, while 61.5 percent of boys believe they do.
When it comes to occupations, twice as many girls (8.3 percent) as boys (3.9 percent) selected "doctor" as their ideal job. This pattern was also present with "teachers" (7.9 percent to 1.6 percent) and "lawyers" (7 percent to 2 percent). However, more than three times as many boys (6.8 percent) as girls (1.7 percent) named "computer field" as their ideal job. For boys, "pro athlete" (7.2 percent) came in second only to "businessperson" as the ideal job, while girls were significantly less interested in professional athletics (0.9 percent).
In all, 12.8 percent of teens selected "businessperson" as their ideal job, nearly twice the number who selected "doctor" (6.5 percent), "teacher" (5.4 percent) and "computer field" (4.9 percent). The results are from the JA Interprise Poll, a survey of 1,000 teens between the ages of 13 and 18. For a complete list of ideal jobs, go to www.ja.org.Salary, ideal job
Expectations for teens' annual salary by age 40 are at the lowest levels in five years of polling, with 8.1 percent of pupils believing they will earn a million dollars by the age of 40. This is down from a high of 14.1 percent in 2002. As for expectations of achieving their ideal job, black pupils were the most optimistic (42.7 percent), followed by Hispanic pupils (33.3 percent), white pupils (31.2 percent), and Asian/Pacific Islander pupils (28.8 percent).
The 2004 JA Interprise Poll on Kids and Careers was administered to pupils ages 13-18 in classrooms nationwide from October to November 2003. Data collection was conducted online. The poll is part of an ongoing series of polls on pupils' views of economic issues.
Junior Achievement Inc., based in Colorado Springs, Colo., is the world's largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and free enterprise through volunteer in-school and after-school programs for pupils in grades K-12. Locally, Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley annually serves nearly 9,000 K-12th-grade pupils within Mahoning, Trumbull, Ashtabula and Columbiana counties.