leaving and entering the hobby? It should be easy for you Fortran boys. 3D Graph please? Maybe I can offer a prize.

Michelle - are you asking how many women enter the hobby from civilian life and the number who retire to civilian life within a given period of time, or are you asking, for a given set of providers, what their pattern of being in or out of the business is?  

My observation is that there are loads of women who flit in and out of the hobby.  I've known professional dancers, for example, who travel the world with their dance companies, but drop into brothels while on tour to pick up money for new toe shoes.  A married Canadian woman who sells hearing aids coast-to-coast has satisfied a longstanding fantasy of being a courtesan by having regulars who pay to see her in ct she visits.  A single mother of two teenage girls works as a hospital administrator during the day and occasionally "makes ends meet" by being a sub.  Scads of college and grad school girls have found there are better ways of paying for tuition than working at Target on summer vacation.  

Okay, now, bring on the Fortran!

once did a survey and a thesis on the relationship of prostitutes on the streets of NYC and the DJIA. He had noticed that when stocks were up in general, the number of ladies on the stree was also up. He did field research, kept journals, did calculations and charted graphs, then published the results. It was a real whore-ratio algebra story! (read, Horatio Alger, for the slower)

Interesting subject Michelle, I too was just thinking of this recently; it seems like last summer/fall I chased several out of the business because none of them are still around. However, I think actual detailed analysis would be difficult at best or near impossible. Just basing this on the local ads and forums that I have seen in my own area. There are so many that come and go so quickly; try it only to find out it is not for them. Then there are the ripoffs that advertise under multiple names and/or keep changing their name. Many move around from one agency to another or go independent after a while. Then consider those under the radar, part timers or limited availability, massage girls, ads in classifieds/yellow pages, dare I mention streetwalkers. Traveling companions would be a challenge to keep track of as well.
Now, what would we do with all this data if we could get an accurate count?  

It seems like it would be alomst as involved as the federal government conducting the national census, which they missed me in 2000 becuase I moved to a brand new address during that process.
best regards mr.man

don't have the heart. Intrigued by the many that do.

Before I got into escorting, even with the pill, I could never tell just when That Time was going to come and when it did, it was usually out of control--somebody could have made a fortune in P&G stock if they'd been able to predict my cycle...but since I've been having all this sex, it comes like clockwork, every 28 days, very moderate for 2 days, then maybe a little bit of spotting.  I bet that Fortran will show good sex makes for good flow... Another great reason not to retire!  YAFI!

Sherman, set the Way-Back Machine for 1982!

... a statistical technique,  Michalle.  The technique is used in economics and biomedical research.  Variations can deal with people who go "in and out".  

People start providing for a variety of reasons.  The following lists some of my guesses as to why they enter.  It is also my guess about the order of importance of these things.  You and the other providers are the ultimate experts.

1) They are attracted by the money.  
2) The life gives them some flexibility they wouldn't get in many straight jobs,
3) They grew up poor or out of the mainstream and don't have many alternatives for well paying employment.  Many immegrant woman enter the profession for this reason.
4) They have expensive habits they can't finance otherwise
5) They are attracted to the lifestyle.  


Why do providers stop?  Here again are my guesses.  It is also my guess about the order of importance of these things.  You and the other providers are the ultimate experts.

1) age
2) changes in their personal situations
3) meeting some financial or personal goal
4) finding they don't like the lifestyle
5) changing views about the risk associated with providing

I don't believe that LE has much effect on the level of prostitution in our society.  They may have some small marginal effect on changing the size of the potential market - but the operative word is "small".

This study would be extremely hard to do.  It would require a random sample of several hundred women that was followed over a period of years.  Probably, the best place to get the sample would be from several woman's health centers that spent a lot of time treating sex workers.   I can't think of a single organization that would be willing to fund the cost (in the millions).  The only group that comes remotely to mind is the churches: and I think that they have a low marginal effect.

I thought you meant like the girl in that BellaDonna DVD who squirted so much.   I guess that's why I dont get paid the big money.

You forgot this one:

They are addicted to men/sex. Not that I would know anything about that!

I would like to propose a simple study (at least in theory).  It seems interesting to follow a group of providers, as many as possible, when they FIRST enter the providing world.  

Say you have a group of 200 providers who have just started out and you follow them for 5 years and collect data every 3 months: Are they still providing, if not why did they leave, etc. So, you have data at 3,6,9,12,...,60 months where at the beginning of each 3 month interval you have data on (1) how many are still providing, (2) how many have left (+ their reasons), (3) how many have dropped out of the study.  

Now, (3) is important - it is called censoring (Survival Analysis) because providers may decide to leave the study (not return questionaires, unreachable ...) and hence you do not observe whether or not they are still providing but only know their status at the last point of contact.  This is a technical detail but is important for ``correctly'' analyzing the data.

This study is quite a simplification but seems feasible - It could be considered a way to address ``why do providers FIRST stop providing''.  There may be some common factors why providers left (likely those alluded to by Harry) and one could do analyses along the lines of:  (a) Time to exit due to ``not liking lifestyle'', (b) Time to exit due to health risks ...

Of course even this study would be quite difficult to implement and does not address why providers (re)enter/leave over their ``careers'' - however, it seems reasonable that why they first leave will be a common theme.

Sorry for the long post,
L

Too many women are both in and out.  It's like asking when yellow becomes green.

/Zin

As others have said it's not easy data to get.  A number I've worked with that seems plausible is that on average a provider works for 5.2 years.  There are an estimated 130,000 providers in the US at any given time.  I don't have my hp or spreadsheet handy, but I think an estimate of about 25,000 per year would be logical.

Hold it, I forgot to have you lick my finger before sticking it up in the wind...  

...  I think I know a bit about the business at this point, but I would be hard pressed to develop a sample that I would be comfortable using.

they remain i their chosen paths!!! LOL

fortran ...whatfor or whatfive ??

Old toys die hard. Slide rules, TI-82s, punch cards and pen and paper. Maybe I will do my own imperfect sampling. Taste the data first hand. Is that steamed mussels from Baltimore on my fingers, or...