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Median employee tenure unchanged at 4.6 years in January 2014

September 25, 2014

In January 2014, wage and salary workers had been with their current employer for a median of 4.6 years, unchanged from January 2012. Median employee tenure was 4.7 years for men and 4.5 years for women in January 2014.

 

Median years of tenure with current employer for employed wage and salary workers, selected years, 1983–2014
Month Both sexes Men Women

Jan 1983

3.5 4.1 3.1

Jan 1987

3.4 4.0 3.0

Jan 1991

3.6 4.1 3.2

Feb 1996

3.8 4.0 3.5

Feb 1998

3.6 3.8 3.4

Feb 2000

3.5 3.8 3.3

Jan 2002

3.7 3.9 3.4

Jan 2004

4.0 4.1 3.8

Jan 2006

4.0 4.1 3.9

Jan 2008

4.1 4.2 3.9

Jan 2010

4.4 4.6 4.2

Jan 2012

4.6 4.7 4.6

Jan 2014

4.6 4.7 4.5

Median employee tenure was generally higher among older workers than younger ones. For example, the median tenure of workers ages 55 to 64 (10.4 years) in January 2014 was more than three times that of workers ages 25 to 34 years (3.0 years).

The share of wage and salary workers with a year or less of tenure with their current employer was 21 percent in January 2014, unchanged from January 2012. This short-tenured group includes new entrants and reentrants to the workforce, job losers who found new jobs during the previous year, and workers who had voluntarily changed employers during the year.

 

Percent distribution of employed wage and salary workers by tenure with their current employer, January 2014
Gender 12 months or less 13 to 23 months 2 years 3 to 4 years 5 to 9 years 10 to 14 years 15 to 19 years 20 years or more

Both sexes

21.3 6.4 5.3 16.5 21.5 12.0 6.5 10.6

Men

20.9 6.3 5.2 16.4 21.4 11.8 6.6 11.3

Women

21.7 6.4 5.4 16.6 21.7 12.1 6.3 9.8

A larger proportion of older workers than younger workers had 10 years or more of tenure. Among workers ages 60 to 64, 58 percent were employed for at least 10 years with their current employer in January 2014, compared with 12 percent of those ages 30 to 34.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see "Employee Tenure in 2014" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL‑14‑1714. Median employee tenure is the point at which half of all workers had more tenure and half had less tenure.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Median employee tenure unchanged at 4.6 years in January 2014 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20140925.htm (visited March 28, 2024).

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