2006 Employee Tenure — 2006-09-08

The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was 4.0 years in January 2006, unchanged from Janu- ary 2004, according to the data released today by the Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Information on employee tenure has been obtained from supplemental ques- tions in the Current Population Survey (CPS) every 2 years since 1996. The CPS is a monthly survey of about 60,000 households that provides information on the labor force status, demographics, and other characteristics 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 they were surveyed. A number of factors can affect the median tenure of the workforce, including changes in the age profile among workers as well as changes in the number of hires and separations.