Do you have a breakdown by industry?
I suspect that the perception of 'disappearing job tenures' may be partly due to the fact that is happening only in the high profile sectors of the US economy (such as the auto industry) but in other sectors it was always "employment at will," high turnover, etc. So the "disappearing tenures" in high profile industries create an illusion that the US job market as a whole is going to the dogs, whereas in reality it has been there all the time, except for a few high profile sectors.
Wojtek
--- On Wed, 7/22/09, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] duh, DeLong
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 2:58 PM
>
> On Jul 22, 2009, at 2:36 PM, Matthias Wasser wrote:
>
> > Does "temporary and flexible" neccessarily mean
> part-time or temp? The
> > number of careers and jobs an American has over her
> lifetime has increased,
> > for instance.
>
> That's not all that clear either. Here's the history on job
> tenure. Note that the median number of years on the job for
> men in 2008 was about a year below what it was in 1966, but
> that's offset by an increase for women, leaving the overall
> figure unchanged. Similiarly with the share of workers on
> the same job for 10 years or more - though those stats only
> begin in 1983.
>
>
> all
> men women
>
> median job tenure (years)
> 1951
> 3.4
> 3.9 2.2
> 1963
> 4.6
> 5.7 3.0
> 1966
> 4.2
> 5.2 2.8
> 1968
> 3.8
> 4.8 2.4
> 1973
> 3.9
> 4.6 2.8
> 1978
> 3.6
> 4.5 2.6
> 1981
> 3.2
> 4.0 2.5
> 1983
> 3.5
> 4.1 3.1
> 1987
> 3.4
> 4.0 3.0
> 1991
> 3.6
> 4.1 3.2
> 1996
> 3.8
> 4.0 3.5
> 1998
> 3.6
> 3.8 3.4
> 2000
> 3.5
> 3.8 3.3
> 2002
> 3.7
> 3.9 3.4
> 2004
> 4.0
> 4.1 3.8
> 2006
> 4.0
> 4.1 3.9
> 2008
> 4.1
> 4.2 3.9
>
> share of over-25 with >10 years
> 1983 31.9
> 37.7 24.9
> 1987 30.7
> 35.0 25.7
> 1991 32.2
> 35.9 28.2
> 1996 30.5
> 33.1 27.6
> 1998 30.7
> 32.7 28.4
> 2000 31.5
> 33.4 29.5
> 2002 30.8
> 32.6 28.8
> 2004 30.6
> 32.4 28.6
> 2006 30.0
> 31.1 28.8
> 2008 31.5
> 32.9 30.0
>
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