Two of the most important aspects of a job are how much it pays and how long it is likely to last. Empirical models of the determination and distribution of wages are plentiful. In Discussion Paper No. 1098, Research Fellow Simon Burgess and Hedley Rees examine 17 years of a large cross-section to build up a picture of job tenure in Britain. They examine the evolution of the distribution of tenure over time, and consider differences between population groups at each date. They first question how the distribution of job tenure changes over the business cycle. Second, they look for any secular changes in the job tenure distribution. Lastly, they examine job tenure for different sub-groups of the population.

The authors find some change in the mean job tenure: a decrease in elapsed tenure of about 10 per cent between 1982-91. These are important changes, but they do not support the view that the dramatic changes in the labour market, technology and competition spell the end of `jobs for life'.

Lifetime Jobs and Transient Jobs: Job Tenure in Britain 1975-91
Simon Burgess and Hedley Rees

Discussion Paper No. 1098, December 1994 (HR)