Employee Tenure

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Tuesday, September 22, 2020	USDL-20-1791
Technical information: [e-mail] • www.bls.gov/cps
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EMPLOYEE TENURE IN 2020

The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was 4.1 years in January 2020, little changed from 4.2 years in January 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Chief Evaluation Office sponsored the January 2020 survey to collect information on employee tenure. Since 1996, these surveys have been conducted biennially in January as a supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households that provides information on the labor force status of the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over. The questions about employee tenure measure how long workers had been with their current employer at the time of the survey. A number of factors can affect median tenure of workers, including changes in the age profile among workers, as well as changes in the number of hires and separations. For further information about the CPS, see the Technical Note in this news release.

Demographic Characteristics

In January 2020, median employee tenure (the point at which half of all workers had more tenure and half had less tenure) for men was 4.3 years, unchanged from the median in January 2018. For women, median tenure was 3.9 years in January 2020, little different from the median of 4.0 years in January 2018. Among men, 29 percent of wage and salary workers had 10 years or more of tenure with their current employer in January 2020, higher than the figure of 27 percent for women. (See tables 1 and 3.)

Median employee tenure was generally higher among older workers than younger ones. For example, the median tenure of workers ages 55 to 64 (9.9 years) was more than three times that of workers ages 25 to 34 years (2.8 years). Also, a larger proportion of older workers than younger workers had 10 years or more of tenure. For example, among workers ages 60 to 64, 54 percent had been employed for at least 10 years with their current employer in January 2020, compared with 10 percent of those ages 30 to 34. (See tables 1 and 2.)

Among the major race and ethnicity groups, 29 percent of Whites had been with their current employer for 10 years or more in January 2020, compared with 22 percent of Hispanics, 23 percent of Blacks, and 26 percent of Asians. (See table 3.) The longer tenure among Whites can be explained, in part, by the fact that they tend to be older. Twenty-three percent of White wage

and salary workers were age 55 and over; by comparison, the proportions for Blacks (19 percent), Asians (19 percent), and Hispanics (15 percent) were smaller.

In January 2020, the share of wage and salary workers with a year or less of tenure with their current employer was 22 percent, unchanged from the proportion in January 2018. This short- tenured group includes new hires, job losers who found new jobs during the previous year, and workers who had voluntarily changed employers during the year. Younger workers were more likely than older workers to be short-tenured employees. For example, in January 2020, 75 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds had tenure of 12 months or less with their current employer, compared with 10 percent of workers ages 55 to 64. (See table 3.)

Among workers age 25 and over, men and women with less than a high school diploma had lower median tenure in January 2020 than those with more education. The median tenure for men and women with less than a high school diploma was 4.8 years and 4.1 years, respectively. College graduates had median tenure of 5.2 years and 4.9 years, respectively. (See table 4.)

Industry

In January 2020, wage and salary workers in the public sector had a median tenure of 6.5 years, nearly twice the median of 3.7 years for private-sector employees. One factor behind this difference is age. About 3 in 4 government workers were age 35 and over, compared with about 3 in 5 private wage and salary workers. Federal employees had a higher median tenure (8.2 years) than state (5.6 years) or local government (6.6 years) employees. (See table 5.)

Within the private sector, workers in manufacturing had the highest tenure among major industries at 5.1 years in January 2020. In contrast, workers in leisure and hospitality had the lowest median tenure (2.3 years). These differences in tenure reflect many factors, one of which is varying age distributions across the industries; workers in manufacturing tend to be older than those in leisure and hospitality.

Occupation

Among the major occupations, workers in management, professional, and related occupations had the highest median tenure (4.9 years) in January 2020. Within this group, employees with jobs in management occupations (5.8 years), legal occupations (5.8 years), architecture and engineering occupations (5.1 years), and educational, training, and library occupations (5.0 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 (2.9 years). Among employees working in service occupations, food service workers had the lowest median tenure at 1.9 years. (See table 6.)

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Technical Note

The data in this release were collected through a supplement to the January 2020 Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS, which is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is a monthly survey of about 60,000 eligible households that provides information on the labor force status, demographics, and other characteristics of the nation's civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over.

The January 2020 CPS supplement, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, obtained information on worker displacement and workers' tenure with their current employer. The data on worker displacement are

onlineat https://www.bls.gov/cps/lfcharacteristics.htm#displaced .

Updated population controls for the CPS are introduced annually with the release of the January data. Additional information about population controls is available on the BLS website at https://www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#pop .

Information in this release will be made available to sensory-impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: [phone], Federal Relay Service: [phone].

Reliability of the estimates

Statistics based on the CPS are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. When a sample, rather than the entire population, is surveyed, there is a chance that the sample estimates may differ from the true population values they represent. The component of this difference that occurs because samples differ by chance is known as sampling error, and its variability is measured by the standard error of the estimate. There is about a 90-percent chance, or level of confidence, that an estimate based on a sample will differ by no more than 1.6 standard errors from the true population value because of sampling error. BLS analyses are generally conducted at the 90-percent level of confidence.

The CPS data also are affected by nonsampling error. Nonsampling error can occur for many reasons, including the failure to sample a segment of the population, inability to obtain information for all respondents in the sample, inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct information, and errors made in the collection or processing of the data.

A full discussion of the reliability of data from the CPS and information on estimating standard errors is available at https://www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#reliability .

Tenure concepts and questions

Employee tenure is a measure of how long wage and salary workers had been with their current employer at the time of the survey. Many of the estimates shown in this report are medians; the median is the point at which half of all workers had more tenure and half had less tenure. Data refer to the sole or principal job of full- and part-time workers.

Wage and salary workers receive wages, salaries, commissions, tips, payment in kind, or piece rates. The group includes employees in both the private and public sectors but excludes all self-employed persons, both those with incorporated businesses and those with unincorporated businesses.

In the CPS supplement, questions on tenure were asked of all employed persons. The main question was: "How long has ... been working continuously for (fill in name of present employer)?"

_____ Days

_____ Weeks

_____ Months

_____ Years

For responses of "1 year" or "2 years," a follow-up question was asked: "Could you please give the exact number of months?"

The purpose of the follow-up question is to obtain more precise information on workers who had been with their current employer for a relatively short time. This follow-up question was included for the first time in the February 1996 CPS supplement on worker displacement and tenure. CPS supplements that obtained information on tenure in January of 1983, 1987, and 1991 did not include the follow-up question. In those surveys, responses of 1 year or more could be coded only as the nearest full year, and responses of less than a year were coded as the nearest full month. Currently, the 2-year category includes 24 to 29 months, and the 3-year category includes 2.5 to 3.5 years.

Prior to January 1983, CPS supplements on tenure asked wage and salary workers, "When did ... start working at (his/her) present job?" For wage and salary workers, the meaning of the term "job" is ambiguous. For example, a worker who had been employed at a particular company for 10 years and had been promoted to a managerial position 1 year prior to the survey may have been counted as having 10 years or 1 year of tenure, depending on whether the respondent interpreted the question to mean tenure with the current employer or tenure in the managerial position. To rectify this ambiguity, the wording of the question was changed in January 1983 to specify the length of time a worker had been with his or her current employer. The change resulted in a break in historical comparability.

Interpreting tenure data

Data on tenure have been used as a gauge of employment security, with some observers regarding increases in tenure as a sign of improving security and decreasing tenure as a sign of deteriorating security. However, there are limitations to using the data in this way. For example, during recessions or other periods of declining

job security, median tenure and the proportion of workers with long tenure could rise if less-senior workers are more likely to lose their jobs than are workers with longer tenure. During periods of economic growth, median tenure and the proportion of workers with long tenure could fall if more job opportunities are available for new entrants to the workforce and experienced workers have more opportunities to change employers and take better jobs. Tenure also could

rise under improving economic conditions, however, as fewer layoffs occur and good job matches develop between workers and employers.

A changing age distribution among workers would also affect median tenure. Since older workers are more likely to have long tenure with their current employer than younger workers, aging baby boomers in the workforce would provide upward pressure on overall median tenure.