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Subscribe to RSSThe number of years we’re staying with the same employer is on the rise, but that’s not necessarily a sign of job security.
As of January, workers had been with their current employers for an average of 4.4 years, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s up from 4.1 years as of January of 2008, the last time the government gathered that data.
The BLS said median employee tenure rose in part because so many less senior workers have lost their jobs in the past couple years.
That’s skewed the numbers in favor of the more experienced workers who were able to hold onto their jobs through the weak economy.
There also haven’t been many jobs out there for people to move to, even if they wanted to change employers.
There were 3 million job openings in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s up from a low of 2.3 million job openings as of July of 2009, but it’s still well below the 4.4 million job openings as of December 2007, when the recent recession began.
The employee tenure figure, which is collected every two years, has generally been on the rise since the 2000. That year, employees had stayed with their employer for 3.5 years, on average.
Not surprisingly, older workers are more likely to have had their jobs the longest. The median employee tenure for workers ages 55 to 64 was 10 years. That compares to 3.1 years for workers 25 to 34 years old.
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I so want to quit my current job, but I would have to take a pay cut and lose some benefits to do so. One more year and I can afford the cuts, but not right now. So I stay in a place I loath and work with some of the worst people around until I can walk. I just hope there is something out there when I hit the door.
Work hard because there's thousands of Indian H1b's waiting to take your job.
It will get worst with all the Federal Government debt. I feel sorry for the young.
Thank you for Obama democrats. What a mess you gave us.
The mess was here before Obama was on the scene. My son-in-law watched his job go overseas in '07. Obama is not responsible for that. Nor is he responsible with the housing crisis or the idiots on Wall Street who deliberately drove our economy over a cliff and collected fat bonuses while doing so. He's also not responsible for the common cold, people wearing socks with sandals, or Justin Bieber.
hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for making me laugh Liutgard. I am so tired from working full time and getting a second master's degree just so I have job mobility that I don't know whether to arrfff, or cry, or go into hysterics.
sorely needed....
The fundamentals of the economy are strong! John McCain
selective memory or group amnesia?
oh wait I know, if you say it enough it must be true! ahhhh
Funny how this is Obama's problem. Didn't this recessing start in 2007 WHEN BUSH WAS PRESIDENT? Get a clue you dumb right wingers!
you are wrong.obama and democrats did not make this mess we are in.republicans made this mess fighting for the wealthy and screwing over the middle and lower class.you need to do your homework before commenting on things you dont know about.
ALL government made this mess, you can blame Clinton, Bush, Bush, Obama, hell go all the way back to Jimmy Carter if you want, government spending is out of control and has been forever! To get technical WE made this mess because WE voted for all of them!!!!
You must mean the BUSH Republicans that drove this economy into a ditch!!!
larry-2037452 "Thank you for Obama democrats. What a mess you gave us."
Wrong Larry!
Thank you Republican Bush supporters who created, then handed off the mess you shamelessly made after voting your war criminal "W" into office twice. You made us enemies around the world, over saw the destruction of the economy, and started paying off the banks to reward them for destroying the economy. You got your collective butts kicked in the last election for good reason. What you handed off to the next administration was essentially a cancer patient with a gunshot wound to the head.
Give credit where credit is due Larry. Congratulations!
Thank You Bush B4st4rds for leaving this garbage we have to clean up. Thank you For wrecking the economy, and driving the stock market into to the Toilet. Thank you for causing the housing market to bottom out so badly that we now have New lows to measure against. Thank you Republican Schmucks for deregulating the Stock Market, the housing market, the financial institutions and the insurance companies. They really needed to have all that free will to cheat the american people of EVERYTHING! And most of all Thank You President Obama for having the courage to stand up and the strength to shoulder the burden that was left behind by all the bush-ites and deregulation morons!
Most of all Piss-off larry, you schmuck-Bush-ite! I bet you STILL think deregulation was the best thing we could have ever done for the economy!!!!!
I'm 47 and working a job clearly meant for someone younger and stronger: overnight stockwork at a large retail store. I feel stuck in my job too as my age and increasing physical problems and fatigue diminish my productivity. However, I'm kept around because it is overnight work and there is still some job security in that. Most others employees where I work have families and social lives or are too young to deal with the rigors of giving up a life in the sunlight for this kind of thing. That is my ONE advantage. Someone even willing to work the "vampire shift" has job security even if they can just show up on some nights. It takes its tool but bills hath no conscience or sympathy.
Used to work in gaming in a backend job which started at 3 AM...then got to start coming in at 5 AM. Hated every moment of the two years I was there...because I thought I had to be. Ended up quitting a year ago & found I enjoy working as a substitute teacher and mowing yards more than anything I have done in too many years.
Sure...I watch every penny I make...am on public assistance and wonder where the money is going to come from every month...but I am also much more happier than I can remember for years...if ever. I have my soul...sanity and my personality back....along with not having to wear kneepads and a saddle every time I was around my former supervisors in that damned casino. The only thing the casino taught me...I hate S&M.
My job is great but the management leaves much to be desired. I'm a single parent living in an older house half the size I can afford. I drive an older vehicle and my teenager does not have a car. It's not easy but I keep putting money away in the hopes of retiring at 55. That will be 10 years less of BS from an ungrateful company to tolerate, well worth the sacrifices I make now.
Give me a break Larry. The country was in the dumper before Obama was elected. $1T spent on wars we shouldn't be in, TARP, improper regulation of mortgage lending and Wall Street... all before Obama. Since we've had another ~$1T on bailouts, keeping dinosaurs like GM afloat instead of letting them go out of business--- bottom line, both parties stink!!!
No; thank you, Republicans, for leaving us this great mess to begin with.
It will be morning again in America come November 2nd. This nightmare of the last 18 months known as obama-ism is coming to an end. The boy scout and chief will be in the fetal position in the oval office sucking his thumb Nov 3rd.
I really enjoy all the Republicans counting their chickens before they hatch in November. In the off-chance that the GOP does take over the House and Senate, I sincerely hope hope you guys have a better plan than your current one of ' Just Say No '. Apparently, you have conveniently forgotten 30 years of GOP mismanagement and malfeasance.
So, in anticipation of the glorious return to power of the G-No-P, I fully expect the following by the end of 2011. The national unemployment rate will be less than 5%. The NDP will be humming along at greater than 4%, the National Debt will be paid off, Social Security will be solvent, taxes will be cut, the war in Afghanistan will be won, our precious troops home, energy will be clean and abundant, our schools well financed and taught, homes will be selling and full of happy, well fed Ozzie and Harriet families.
But, if for some strange and unforeseen reason, none of the above happens after we give you back the wheel of the car you ran into the ditch just two years ago, you will have been proven to be the craven, lying lacky dogs of greed and criminal corporate boot lickers that we know you truly are.
What? Thats not enough time to undo only 2 years of ' Socialist Rule' ? Try undoing 30 years of failed Reaganomics.
Finally, somebody else sees this for what it really is. This is the trickle down effects of Reaganomics. I lived through those times. Reagan showed the companies how to outscource their labor while keeping the company headquarters here. That made it legal. Republicans say they are the party of fiscal responsibility. Bullcrap. In 1979 our national debt was 982 billion. After Reagan and the first George Bush our national debt was 3.2 trillion in 1989. The republicans hate social security. I don't know why. Without SS they would have no way to pay for Govt. They give tax cuts to the rich, then steal SS money to pay for day to day blunders. First G Bush took over a trillion and his son took over a trillion. G.W. Bush was taking at a rate of 500 million a day. Pledge To America just nonsense.
ive been at a major car rental company now for about 7 years,a LOT longer than i ever imagined; i am grateful for 2 things; one...i have good benefits....two,...i have learned how NOT to run a company;LOUSY management, MORE LOUSY customers...just waiting for the best time to start my own business and get away from that dreadful place;seems the bigger the company, the more screaming you need to do,to get things corrected,when most everyone around you simply doesnt care anymore; this company would be good for a case study in a business course in college....
Well I am stuck in my job (telephone customer service) for the time being. The best thing about it, is that it's so horrible it got me to go back to school. So I'm working on my degree, and my fiance might be able to support us for a while starting next year when I have an internship requirement for my degree, and every day I just try to do the best I can. Keep in mind when you call customer service for something, there are people like me on the other end of the line just trying to get by, too.
Did it for too many years that I wish I could forget. The funniest part...people ask me why an educated person like myself won't go to a call center to accept calls for $8.50 an hour in a recession? When I tell them my experience of working in a call center...the employees get burned out after six months. For some reason...they don't understand your job is not to help the customer...but to get them off the line as quickly as possible by telling them "NO" to save the company money when the customer doesn't understand why...I got a glazed look from them telling me that it's a job.
The load just gets heavier, and we keep on going. There has to be a straw that will break the camel's back. It is coming, I just do not know when.
The average US worker is exhausted from doing the job of three people and have now reached a point of apathy. They have lost pride in their jobs; they're exhausted from being driven by corporations that are cutting personnel to funnel money to their shareholders and executives.
if you put my hours on the job against my income, i'm actually earning 1/3 less per hour than my pay scale states I am.
Most office workforces are now tethered by laptops and PDA communications. but in this economy i feel fortunate to have work and do not bitch about the continued piling on of the work load.
if work hours were brought back into line with 8 hour days and the load spread to needed employees there wouldn't be an unemployment problem, there would be a labor shortage.
Right now if someone has a job , they're doing ok.
Where is the FUN in JOBS? In the business world, it is unfortunate that many people do not like their work environment. Long hours, stress, travel, computers, cellphones, blackberry etc. have taken over their lives. The companies now have you 24/7.
i agree, i have doing the same kind of work for almost 14 years. i am so burned out. i only wish i had nicer customers.
I have been with the same company for 13 years now (not in the same positions the whole time). The company has changed so much since I started that I would love to leave for another job but haven't been successful in finding one. I do get called for interviews and sometimes it's down to me and one other person but the offer has not been to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful to be bringing home the $30/hr and great benefits, but there has to be more to life than this. I'm hoping to get the heck out of here before the next downturn in the market (been through two of them so far and don't want to go through another one with this company because of lack of intelligence from the officers of this company) but I don't have much hope. I have 20 more years to work and hope I can find something more enjoyable to do and maybe I will have to leave the country to find what I am looking for...
Wow, 30/hr? At least you can get by and actually have money at the end of the week..
I don't know anyone who feels they have the luxury of leaving a job just because they're miserable. And I think that employers know that and exploit it.
I agree Daisy. That's exactly what I feel like (and yes, I do feel guilty because I have a job and make good money and am growing to hate it). I am a prisoner here. I can't just quit because there are no other jobs out there, would lose my health insurance, etc. How many other people are like me? Just plain STUCK?
We need to tighten up the H1b's status and cut it back considerably. Every day I see more I.T. jobs going to them and it's killing us.
It's called the 'Golden Handcuffs'.