Tomorrow’s workforce puts family first

America’s future workforce has clear-cut priorities when it comes to balancing career and family, it’s family first.

In a recent survey conducted by Adecco, a staffing service company, about 95 percent of the children polled said spending time with the family is more important than earning a large salary.

The survey, conducted at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Melville, New York, as part of its annual "Take a Child to Work Day" program, questioned 74 children between the ages of six and 14 about career expectations.

Answers varied widely, with one child wanting to make "50-thousand-million-hundred dollars a day" and another child wanting to be a paleontologist.

However, the most popular career choice for girls 6 to 9 years old was medicine, with 30 percent wanting to be a doctor, dentist, veterinarian or nurse.

Boys in the same age group picked jobs in the public sector, with 32 percent hoping to be policemen or firemen.

But the survey also found a boy who wanted to be a neurosurgeon, one who wanted to be a "floor tiler" and another setting his career sights on being the next great New York Mets catcher.

Probably the most earnest answer came from a little boy who wanted to be just "a regular man."

Girls 10 to 12 years old want to be teachers (35 percent), lawyers (15 percent) and singers (15 percent), and boys that age showed slightly more varied interests such as architecture, computer science and professional basketball.

And what’s the coolest job on Earth?

The No. 1 response was president of the United States, but other "cool" careers were a penguin trainer, a McDonald’s owner, a gospel singer, a toy-store manager, and, of course, "the person who guards the roller coasters."

The above provided by the North American Precis Syndicate.