What is the average tenure in public versus private sectors?
The public sector means governmental jobs, whether federal or state jobs. The private sector means private businesses or organizations that aren't governmental.
When choosing a career, consider a field in which you will be changing companies often, or staying at one or two companies until retirement.
Certain sectors and industries have longer tenure tracts for the employees than others, and education plays a factor in work tenure as well.
The public sector's median tenure was 6.8 years in January of 2022, and the private sector's median tenure was 3.7 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The public sector's median tenure is double that of the private sector. Age differences play an important factor in this tenure difference. 75% were over 35 years of age in the public sector, whereas 60% were over 35 in the private.
People who have higher education have longer tenure, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics in their "Spotlight on Statistics":
"Among workers age 25 and older, those with at least a high school education were more likely to have 10 years or more with their current employer than those with less than a high school education.
For example, 27 percent of workers with less than a high school diploma had 10 years or more of tenure, compared with 36 percent of those with only a high school diploma (no college)."
Bureau of Labor Statistics
If this trend were continued, those with a college degree would have more tenure than those without a college degree, and those who have graduate degrees would have even more tenure.
The average amount of tenure, for all industries and fields of employment (including public and private) was 4.6 years in 2012.
In 2022, ten years later:
median employee tenure (the point at which half of all workers had more tenure and half had less tenure) for men held at 4.3 years. For women, median tenure was 3.8 years in January 2022, little changed from the median of 3.9 years in January 2020. Among men, 28 percent of wage and salary workers had 10 years or more of tenure with their current employer in January 2022, higher than the figure for women (26 percent).
BLS
The private sector's average tenure was slightly below the average at 4.2 years, whereas the public sector's average was significantly higher at 7.8 years, with the Federal Government at the highest, with 9.5 years.
The private sector industry with the highest tenure was in manufacturing, with 6.0 years. Given that the private sector is financially motivated may have an impact on these tenure averages.
Also, job security has historically been high in the public sector, where jobs are created and very rarely done away with.
Considering the tenure averages may have a bearing on your chosen career field; if longer tenure tracks are desired, a serious consideration may be given to public careers. If you're of the disposition who likes change and risk (with the possibility of high financial gains), try your hand at the private sector.
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