Study untangles divergent U.S. job-tenure patterns

Have American jobs become less stable? Do workers change employers more frequently than in the past?. Many Americans would probably say the answer to these questions is an obvious yes. Yet, for the past few decades researchers looking at the data haven't been so sure: average job tenure (the number of years working for the same employer) has been surprisingly stable over time. In a study, "Unmasking the Conflicting Trends in Job Tenure by Gender in the United States,1983-2008," published in the February issue of the American Sociological Review, sociologists Matissa Hollister of McGill University and Kristin Smith of the University of New Hampshire solve this puzzle by breaking out trends in job tenure separately for men and women and by marital and parental status. Their study, which includes a supplemental analysis through 2012, shows that men and never-married women have seen declines in job tenure, but this trend was masked by increases in the job tenure of married mothers. The authors argue that these divergent patterns, which kept overall average job tenure stable (7.15 years in both 1983 and 2012), point to two fundamental shifts in expectations and behaviors in the U.S. labor market. The first shift reflects employers' and workers' increasing belief that they are no longer expected or obligated to pursue long-term employment relationships.