Federal employees’ job tenure on the decline

Federal employees still remain on the job much longer than private sector workers, but the gap is narrowing.

New numbers released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the length of tenure for federal employees is decreasing while that of private sector workers is increasing. From February 2000 to January 2006, median years in federal service dropped from 11.5 years to 9.9 years.

During that same period, median private sector tenure rose from 3.2 years to 3.6 years. These figures are taken from the BLS Current Population Survey, conducted every two years on about 60,000 households. The survey includes both wage and salary workers.

The federal trend differs from that for state and local government workers, too. Federal employees stay longer than other public sector workers, but not as much as they used to. Tenure for state employees rose from 5.5 years to 6.3 years from February 2000 to January 2006. Length of stay for local government workers dropped slightly during that time, from 6.7 years to 6.6 years.

The BLS report cites age as a primary factor for the much longer tenure of public sector employees. About 75 percent of government employees were 35 and older, while about 60 percent of private sector workers fell into that range.

The report also points out that employees in "management, professional and related occupations" had the longest median tenure, at 5.2 years, of all occupations. Median tenure was lowest among workers in service occupations: 1.8 years for food service workers and 2.8 years for service workers in general. Differences in occupational options between the public and private sectors may account for some of the gap in tenure.

Federal employees have sometimes been referred to as having "golden handcuffs" because of the generous retirement and health benefits they hold on to by remaining in their jobs until retirement. In 1986, Congress created the Federal Employees Retirement System, which features a more portable 401(k)-style retirement savings plan that is not dependent on remaining in government.