Over the last three decades, the job tenure for American women who work full time increased, while the length of time men workers stayed with an employer dropped, report researchers at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
In analyzing new population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, EBRI analysts discovered that the median job tenure for men decreased from 5.9 years in 1983 to 5.1 years in 2010. The job tenure for women, however, jumped from 4.2 years in 1983 to 5.1 years in 2010. As such, the once-wide gender gap in job tenure is gradually disappearing.
Although the see-saw effect on job tenure with men and women has nearly closed the gender gap, this social shift has had little effect on the overall job tenure rate in the United States.
While the "growth in women’s tenure offset the decline for male workers over the period [of 1983 to 2010], the overall the job tenure rate has been relatively stable," explains EBRI analysts. For example, the median job tenure for full-time workers age 25 and older was 5.2 years in 2010, an increase from 5 years in 1983.
"For the great majority of American workers, so-called ‘career jobs’ never existed, and they certainly do not exist today,” says Craig Copeland, EBRI senior research associate, and author of the study "
The 2010 data also show that workers with less then five years of tenure hit 51%, the highest level over the 1983–2010 period by nearly 2 percentage points.
Copeland explains that "with unemployment remaining high in 2009 and 2010, the increase in median tenure levels indicates that workers with jobs are hanging onto them longer—especially at a time when people without jobs are having trouble finding one."
He believes some of the figures on job tenure will have key implications for how workers save for retirement.
"Traditional pension plans have limited benefits for short-term workers, which makes it all the more important that workers who participate in a 401(k)-type plan retain their retirement savings when they change jobs," he explains.
Other key findings from the research include:
Older workers: Older male and female workers also saw increases in median job tenure. For instance, the tenure for males ages 55–64 rose from 9.5 years in 2006 to 10.4 years in 2010. Women ages 55–64 saw the largest tenure increase over a longer time series, from 7.8 years in 1963 to 9.7 years in 2010.
Private vs. public sectors: For private-sector workers, the median tenure held relatively steady from 1983–2002, at around 3.5 years, and subsequently trended upward, reaching 4.0 years in 2010. Among public-sector workers, median job tenure reached 7.1 years in 2010. Public-sector job tenure currently is about 80% higher than it is in the private sector.
Long- vs. short-tenured workers: Workers with 20 or more years of tenure increased from 8.9% in 1983 to 10.9% in 2010. There was a corresponding decrease in the percentage of workers with one year or less of tenure, declining from 25.7% in 1983 to 17.4% in 2010.
