TY  - JOUR
AU  - Stevens,Ann Huff
TI  - The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same: Trends in Long-term Employment in the United States, 1969-2002
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11878
PY  - 2005
Y2  - December 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11878
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11878.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ann Huff Stevens
Department of Economics
One Shields Avenue
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA  95616
Tel: 530/752-3034
E-Mail: annstevens@ucdavis.edu
AB  - This study considers whether there has been a decline in the attachment of workers and firms in the United States over the past several decades. Specifically, it compares snapshots of job tenure taken at the end of workers' careers from 1969 to 2002, using data from the Retirement History Survey, the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men, and the Health and Retirement Study. The primary finding is one of stability in the prevalence of long-term employment relationships for men in the United States. In 1969, average tenure in the longest job for males aged 58-62 was 21.9 years. In 2002, the comparable figure was 21.4 years. Just over half of men ending their careers in 1969 had been with a single employer for at least 20 years; the same is true in 2002. This finding is robust to adjustments for minor differences in question details across data sources and for educational and retirement age changes over this time period.
ER  -