Part
01
of two
Part
01
Australian Employment Trends Part 1, Tenure
The average tenure of Australian employee for the years between 2015 and 2019 are provided in the attached spreadsheet. Calculations and assumptions are elaborated in the strategy section.
AERAGE TENURE OF AN AUSTRALIAN EMPLOYEE
- 2015 — Average tenure of 18.1 years
- 2016 — Average tenure of 18.1 years
- 2017 — Average tenure of 18.1 years
- 2018 — Average tenure of 4 years
- 2019 — Estimated average tenure of 3 years
Research Strategy:
We began our research by combing through all publicly available sources, including labor statistics domains, Australian government reports, and media. We didn't find any direct findings in these sources that stated the average number of years, however we found a report by the OECD that showed the Australian tenure by time segments, average number of employees and average number of years.
We then decided to use the OECD data to triangulate and calculate the information in order to get the average tenure years. The calculation was as follows (all data tables attached in the spreadsheet):
2015
3.3 (<1 month years)* 362 (<1 month tenure employees) + 7.3 (1 to <6 months years)* 827(1 to <6 months employees) + 9.6 (6 to <12 months years)* 1,087 (6 to <12 months employees) + 20.3 (1 to <3 years)* 2,312 (1 to <3 years employees) + 15.1 (3 to <5 years)* 1,720 (3 to <5 years employees) + 20.8 (5 to <10 years)* 2,411 (5 to <10 years employees) + 23.6 (10 years and over years)* 3,032 (10 years and over employees) / 11,749 (total number of employees) = 18.1 years (average)
2016
3.4 (<1 month years)* 393 (<1 month tenure employees) + 7.5 (1 to <6 months years)* 855 (1 to <6 months employees) + 9.8 (6 to <12 months years)* 1,127 (6 to <12 months employees) + 20.5 (1 to <3 years)*2,413 (1 to <3 years employees) + 14.4 (3 to <5 years)* 1,696 (3 to <5 years employees) + 19.9 (5 to <10 years)* 2,319 (5 to <10 years employees) + 24.5 (10 years and over years)* 3,154 (10 years and over employees) / 11,956 (total number of employees) = 18.1 years (average)
2017
3.6 (<1 month years)* 418 (<1 month tenure employees) + 7.7(1 to <6 months years)* 909 (1 to <6 months employees) + 9.6 (6 to <12 months years)* 1,127 (6 to <12 months employees) + 20.9 (1 to <3 years)* 2,486 (1 to <3 years employees) + 14 (3 to <5 years)* 1,717 (3 to <5 years employees) + 19.2 (5 to <10 years)* 2,321 (5 to <10 years employees) + 25 (10 years and over years)* 3,295 (10 years and over employees) / 12,273 (total number of employees) = 18.1 years (average)
For the year of 2018 we were able to find a report that indicated the tenure number of years.
As for 2019, since the data is calculated and reported only after the year is over, we have used an estimate from the 2018 report. We believe it would be safe to assume that the average tenure of an Australian employee will be somewhere between 3 and 4 years.