Employee Tenure Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, September 22, 2022  	      USDL-22-1894

Technical information:  (202) 691-6378  *  cpsinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/cps 
Media contact:          (202) 691-5902  *  PressOffice@bls.gov


			      EMPLOYEE TENURE IN 2022        			


The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their
current employer was 4.1 years in January 2022, unchanged from the median in
January 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Chief Evaluation Office sponsored the January
2022 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 2022, median employee tenure (the point at which half of all workers
had more tenure and half had less tenure) for men held at 4.3 years. For women,
median tenure was 3.8 years in January 2022, little changed from the median of
3.9 years in January 2020. Among men, 28 percent of wage and salary workers had
10 years or more of tenure with their current employer in January 2022, higher
than the figure for women (26 percent). (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 (9.8 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, 53 percent had been employed
for at least 10 years with their current employer in January 2022, compared 
with 9 percent of those ages 30 to 34. (See tables 1 and 2.)

Among the major race and ethnicity groups, 28 percent of Whites had been with
their current employer for 10 years or more in January 2022, compared with 24 
percent of Blacks, 22 percent of Asians, and 21 percent of Hispanics. (See 
table 3.) The higher share of long-tenured workers among Whites may be due, in
part, because they tend to be older. Among White wage and salary workers, 23
percent were age 55 and over. By comparison, the proportions for Blacks (20 
percent), Asians (17 percent), and Hispanics (15 percent) were smaller.

In January 2022, the share of wage and salary workers with a year or less of
tenure with their current employer was 24 percent, higher than the proportion
in January 2020 (22 percent). 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 2022,
about 79 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds had tenure of 12 months or less with
their current employer, compared with about 12 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 2022 than those with more education. The
median tenure for men and women with less than a high school diploma was 4.5 
years and 4.3 years, respectively. Male and female college graduates had median
tenure of 5.1 years and 4.9 years, respectively. (See table 4.)

Industry

In January 2022, wage and salary workers in the public sector had a median tenure
of 6.8 years, higher than 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 government employees had a higher median tenure (7.5 years) than state
(6.3 years) or local government (6.9 years) employees. (See table 5.)

Among the major private industries, workers in manufacturing had the highest
tenure, at 5.2 years in January 2022. By contrast, workers in leisure and 
hospitality had the lowest median tenure (2.0 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 (5.0 years) in January 2022. Within 
this group, employees with jobs in management occupations (6.2 years), 
educational, training, and library occupations (5.5 years), architecture and 
engineering occupations (5.2 years), and legal occupations (4.7 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 (2.8 years). Among employees working in service 
occupations, food service workers had the lowest median tenure, at 1.6 years.
(See table 6.)