A recent study of employee tenure by the Employee Benefits Research Institute found a striking difference between tenure in the public and private sectors, as well as some other interesting trend information.
According to the study:
- Median job tenure for all workers age 20 or older was 4.0 years.
- Median job tenure for workers in the private sector was 3.9 years.
- Median job tenure for workers in the public sector was 7.0 years.
The study also looked at job tenure by gender, which showed only a minor difference. (For reasons unclear to me, the gender data is based on workers age 25 years or older.)
- Median job tenure for all workers age 25 or older was 4.9 years.
- Median job tenure for male workers was 5.0 years.
- Median job tenure for female workers was 4.8 years.
Another interesting analysis involved looking at the change in tenure over time; in this case from 1983 to 2006:
- Overall, tenure stayed virtually unchanged - median job tenure for all workers (25 years or older) went from 5.0 years in 1983 to 4.9 years in 2006. (It would appear that the notion of career employment has been out of the picture for some time now.)
- However, median job tenure for male workers declined during this period, from 5.9 years in 1983 to 5.0 years in 2006.
- Female median job tenure, on the other hand, increased during the same period, from 4.2 years in 1983 to 4.8 years in 2006.
A summary of the research can be found in the April edition of EBRI's NOTES newsletter.
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