Americans are staying at their jobs longer but the average length of time on the job for American workers in 2012 was just 5.4 years, up from 5.2 years in 2010 and 5 years in 1983, according to new research from the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

The median tenure for male wage and salary workers was lower in 2012 at 5.5 years, compared with 5.9 years in 1983. In contrast, the median tenure for female wage and salary workers increased from 4.2 years in 1983 to 5.4 years in 2012. Consequently, the long-term increase in the median tenure of female workers more than offsets the decline in the median tenure of male workers, leaving the overall level slightly higher over the long-term.

Even among older male workers (ages 55–64), who experienced the largest change in their median tenure, the median tenure fell from a level that would not normally be considered a career—14.7 years in 1963—to 10.7 years in 2012.