Maarthandam

Preface – What’s Happening

Lets get it straight – Job tenures are decreasing, and workers are changing jobs more quickly than ever. The old “stay with one company for decades” attitude is fading away, and new statistics from 2014 to 2024 indicate a slightly worrying trend, not for employees but for employers.

 What’s happening? Workers of all age groups are remaining in positions for shorter times, with youngsters and Gen-Z staying the shortest. Before we dive into the insights, the data is sourced from BLS website and several research papers are attested to back these insights. What is certainly evident is the falling tenures of the employees.

Tenures of Women Dropped the Steepest

Women are switching/changing jobs faster than ever before, with their average job tenure dropping more steeply than that of men across all age groups. Back in 2014, the average tenure was 4.5 years. And a decade later, it is 3.6 Years. That is almost one year less.

Back in 2020, the workforce saw a steep decline in the participation of Women. This was attributed to Covid-19, which seems to be an acceptable hypothesis, until the bombshell dropped.

Jen Miller reports that women in the workforce wanted flexibility, which they did not get and therefore began to dropout. Also, mental health was a big factor in women dropping out. Now that a few factors have been cleared, such detrimental issues are a sure-shot contributor to the declining tenures of women.

Young Workers Stay the Least

Workers aged 16-20 continue to have the shortest job tenures, but their tenure trends have not followed a straight decline over the years. Instead, there have been periods of both drop and recovery, and it’s most probably seasonal. Young workers are less likely to take a risk that jeopardizes their careers and that’s understandable.

Also, irrespective of the gender, younger people at the age of 16-20 barely stay for a year, their tenures averaging around 0.8 years. Those aged between 20-24 years stayed at an average of 1.3 years across the decade. Contrast this with those in the age 25-34, who stay twice as long at 2.7, down from 3 years in the past decade

It looks like Gen-Z aren’t quite fond of their burnt out bosses. A Sunday paper of the Fast Company Daily has even stressed on the various points covering the reason for the unhappiness of Gen-Z at work

More than half (52%) of Gen Z employees report to recruitment company Robert Walters that they’d rather not be middle managers—according to a survey of 2,000 white-collar workers, 800 of which were Gen Zers.

A Fortune article, dated 19th February, 2025

Everybody is Staying Less Longer

While younger workers have always had shorter tenures, even older employees—who historically remained in positions for longer—are now leaving sooner than they did a decade ago.

Every age group is staying one year less than they did in the past decade. A decline in median job tenure is a stronger indicator of a real shift in workforce behavior than a drop in average tenure. The median represents the middle point, meaning half of all workers stay for a shorter period and half stay longer. If the median drops, it means that most workers—not just a few—are leaving jobs sooner.

In contrast, the average (mean) tenure can be skewed by a small number of employees staying very long or very short periods, making it less reliable in capturing widespread trends. So, if the median is falling, it signals a genuine, broad decline in job tenure across the workforce

Research Blames Employers

A Gallup survey indicates that the american enthusiasm towards work is at a ten year low. Yet another gallup survey indicates a great detachment of employees at work. Federal Job satisfaction is falling – it fell by 7 points in 2022. Another report states that the job satisfaction kept falling, and even after all these warnings, we suppose nothing is being taken care of.

Several Research papers may continue to add on whatever we have said. It is only time, that will tell the tales of the future. Until then , adios !

Data Sources

Enjoy this little cartoon, the sources are below it.

Data Source 1 – BLS

Data Source 2 – BLS