Median tenure with current employer was 3.5 years in private sector in January 2024

In January 2024, wage and salary workers had a median tenure of 3.9 years with their current employer, meaning half of workers had more tenure and half had less. The median tenure was 3.5 years for those working in the private sector and 6.2 years for those in the public sector. Age is one factor behind the difference since tenure was generally higher among older workers than younger ones. About 3 in 4 government workers were age 35 and over, compared with about 3 in 5 private wage and salary workers.

Within the private sector, workers in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (5.7 years), manufacturing (4.9 years), and financial activities (4.7 years) had the highest tenure among major industries in January 2024. Workers in leisure and hospitality had the lowest median tenure (2.1 years). The differences in tenure reflect many factors, one of which is varying age distributions across the industries; workers in the major industries with the highest tenure tend to be older than those in leisure and hospitality.

Workers in federal government and local government had median tenures above the overall public sector level, at 6.5 years and 6.4 years, respectively. Median tenure for state government employees averaged 5.7 years in January 2024.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see “Employee Tenure in 2024.”