Aussies Staying in Jobs Longer
26 August 2013 at 10:36 am
Australians are staying in their jobs for longer, according to new figures released last week that show a shift to longer term employment.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) annual snapshot of Labour Mobility in Australia showed that some 18.2% of people who were working had been with their current employer or in the same business for less than a year, while in 2008 that proportion was 22.1%.
In 2012, the figure was 19.9%.
The report also suggested that more workers were staying in their jobs for multiple years.
The proportion of people in the same workplace for over five years rose, from 41.3% in 2008 to 44% in 2012, and then 44.4 % in 2013.
Some 8.1% of employees had worked with their current employer for 20 years or more.
The new figures showed 12.5 million Australians were in some kind of paid employment in the year to February 2013.
16 per cent of those who had worked in the previous year had left a job during that period.
The data represented a one percent drop from the previous year, or almost 120,000 fewer job leavers.
ABS Director of Labour Force, Cassandra Gligora, said people were leaving jobs for varying reasons.
"The Labour Mobility survey found that four in 10 people left their last job involuntarily, and of these almost half had been working for their employer or business for less than 12 months (47 per cent). The most common reason for leaving was that the job was temporary or seasonal (58 per cent)", Gligora said.
"The remaining six out of 10 people left their job voluntarily. They were more likely to have worked in that job for one year or more (68 per cent), and a third of these reported that they left the job to obtain a better job or better conditions, or that they wanted a change (34 per cent). Another quarter left to retire, to start a new business, or for other reasons," she said.
The survey, conducted by the ABS in February this year, surveyed 27,642 employed people over the age of 15.
