The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was four years in January 2006, unchanged from January 2004, according to the data released September 8 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Information on employee tenure has been obtained from supplemental questions in the Current Population Survey (CPS) every two years since 1996. The CPS is a monthly survey of about 60,000 households that provides information on the labor force status, demographics, and other characteristics of the civilian non-institutional population age 16 and over. The questions about employee tenure measure how long workers had been with their current employer at the time they were surveyed. A number of factors can affect the median tenure of the workforce, including changes in the age profile among workers as well as changes in the number of hires and separations.
Demographic Characteristics
In January 2006, median tenure for men was 4.1 years, little different than that of women (3.9 years). From 1996 to 2002, the median tenure for men was about 0.5 year higher than for women.
Older workers tend to have more years of tenure than their younger counterparts. For example, median tenure (the point at which half of all workers had more tenure and half had less tenure) for employees ages 55 to 64 was 9.3 years in January 2006, about three times the tenure for workers ages 25 to 34 (2.9 years).
As would be expected, a larger percentage of older workers than younger workers had 10 or more years of tenure. For example, among wage and salary workers ages 55 to 59, about half were employed for 10 years or more with their current employer. Among workers ages 30 to 34, about 11 percent have 10 or more years of tenure; for workers ages 25 to 29, the proportion was about 2 percent.
The proportion of all wage and salary workers age 16 and over with at least 10 years of tenure with their current employer, at 26 percent in January 2006, was little changed from January 2004. Among men, 27 percent had at least 10 years of tenure with their current employer in January 2006 compared with 25 percent among women.
In January 2006, 16 percent of Hispanic wage and salary workers (age 16 years and over) had been with their current employer for 10 or more years compared with 26 percent of white, 23 percent of black, and 21 percent of Asian workers. The shorter tenure among Hispanics can be explained, in part, by their relative youth. Nearly 50 percent of Hispanic workers age 16 and over were between the ages of 16 and 34. By contrast, fewer than 40 percent of whites, blacks, and Asians were 16 to 34 years old.
About 24 percent of wage and salary workers age 16 and over had 12 months or less of tenure with their current employer in January 2006. These short-tenured workers include new entrants and reentrants to the labor force, job losers who found new jobs during the previous year, and workers who had voluntarily changed employers during the previous year. As would be expected, younger workers are more likely than older workers to have short tenure. For example, among 20- to 24-year-olds, about half had a year or less of tenure with their current employer.
Industry
In January 2006, wage and salary workers in the public sector had almost double the median tenure of private sector employees, 6.9 vs. 3.6 years. One factor behind this difference is age. About 75 percent of government workers were age 35 and over compared with about 60 percent of private wage and salary workers. Federal employees had a higher median tenure (9.9 years) than state (6.3 years) or local government (6.6 years) employees.
Within the private sector, workers in manufacturing had the highest tenure among major industries, at 5.5 years in January 2006. By comparison, workers in leisure and hospitality had the lowest median tenure (1.9 years). These differences in tenure reflect many factors, one of which is varying age distributions across industries; workers in manufacturing tend to be older on average than those in leisure and hospitality.
Occupation
Among the major occupations, workers in management, professional, and related occupations had the highest median tenure (5.2 years) in January 2006. Within this group, employees with jobs in architecture and engineering occupations (6.5 years) and management occupations (6.0 years) had the longest tenure. Workers in service occupations, who are generally younger than persons employed in management, professional, and related occupations, had the lowest median tenure (2.8 years). Among employees working in service occupations, food service workers had the lowest median tenure, at 1.8 years.
