In doing research for an upcoming book I’m writing, 10 Reasons Why You’re Not Being Paid What You’re Worth, I came across some astounding statistics on employee tenure that I just can’t wait to share.
When I started in the career business nearly 15 years ago, the average length of time a professional would spend at one employer ranged from 7-10 years. That was for all ages combined. Well, I just read a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the guys that calculate the unemployment numbers each month, that stated for 2016, the average tenure for employees under 55 was only 2.8 years. The last time I saw that stat was for 2015, which showed it to be around 3 years… so it’s continuing to decline.
This may be a real shocker for you, especially if you’ve been in your job for over a dozen years or more, as many of our clients have been. But it might interest you to know that the average tenure for employees from age 55 to 64 is 10.1 years – quite a difference in loyalty (from both the employee and the employer)!
Now, in digging deeper into the numbers, I believe the 2.8-year average tenure for those under 55 may be skewed substantially by those just entering the job market, as young employees aged 16 to 19 have a 74% chance of having a tenure under 12 months!
You may be thinking, “I could never leave a job in under three years,” but here is what I’ve seen in the careers of people with an average tenure of three years; they tend to move up the corporate ladder quicker, and therefore get paid more each time they move companies. This can equate to tens of thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars more per year for those people that move companies quickly, versus people who stay with the same company for 15-30 years.
A great example is a client from few years ago who had worked for one well-known organization for 17 years, and had climbed the corporate ladder at that company to make it to a Vice President level. The downside for having all of that loyalty (and a bit of naiveté, since she had worked there since she graduated college) was a base salary of only $135K with what she saw as a substantial bonus of $50K per year.
After working with us to help her find something different, she quickly landed a position with global technology company as an individual contributor in Sales (making the switch from an IT department), and made $750K her first year. To top that off, by the end of her first year, she was promoted to Regional Director for a package over a million dollars.
All of the vendors and suppliers she worked with in her initial position kept encouraging her to leave, telling her that she could make so much more somewhere else… and they were so right!!
As a post script to that example, I ran into this client just a few weeks ago, and she told me in her second year, she got promoted again to a very high profile position, making substantially more than her last role.
If you’re holding on to a position for over a dozen years, and you don’t know the current executive job search landscape, perhaps we should talk. There’s a good chance you could make so much more than you’re getting right now. Click the button at the bottom of this page to take our "getting to know you" questionnaire, and we'll call you.
