Median job tenure hovers near 5 years, survey shows

More than half of all adult American workers have been on the job for less than five years, but men are changing jobs more frequently than they used to and are now less likely to retain a job for significantly longer than women do, a new analysis reports.

The research, by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, was published in the March 2003 issue of EBRI Notes.

It found that the median tenure for workers over 25 is now 4.4 years for women and 4.9 years for men.

For all workers in this age group, median job tenure declined from 5 years to 4.7 between 1983 and 2002.

Among the report's other findings:

Among men ages 55 to 64, median tenure has risen slightly over the past half century, going from 9.3 years in 1951 to 10.2 years in 2002. Median tenure increased for workers in all age categories during this period.

Workers in public sector jobs tended to retain them for much longer than those employed in the private sector. In 2002, the median tenure for public sector workers over 20 was nearly seven years, nearly double the 3.6-year median reported for private sector workers.

The proportion of male workers with more than 10 years on the job has dropped in every category, but more than half (56.9 percent) of men between 50 and 59 were in this group.

The percentage of women in each age cohort with more than 10 years of service lagged behind men of comparable age. Women between 45 and 49 comprised the sole group where the proportion with such long service increased.

"These numbers challenge some assumptions about how younger Americans are job jumpers and confirms that broad patterns have proven quite stable over time," said Employee Benefit Research Institute President and CEO Dallas Salisbury.