A Short History of Labour Turnover, Job Tenure, and Job Security, 1975–93

How extensive is labour turnover and how does it vary by gender, skill and over time? Using survey data from Britain between 1975 and 1993, this study documents these features and discovers evidence of widening inequalities in job stability and security. For the majority still in full-time employment, average job durations are little changed from those of twenty years ago. For those seeking employment, however, current patterns of job creation mean that entry jobs are now of shorter duration, more unstable, and relatively less well paid. Nor do entry jobs offer sufficient access into stable jobs. As a result, entry jobs are increasingly taken by those with a partner in work, polarising the distribution of employment and thereby disenfranchising around one-fifth of working-age households from regular access to earned incomes. Copyright 1995 by Oxford University Press.