How long are employees in Germany employed with their current employer?
The duration of employment with the current employer can be viewed as an important indicator of the stability of employment, which may have an impact on the satisfaction of the employees. Employees feeling comfortable with their job and their employer are probably less likely to change the place of work. In the following, all employees aged 25 years or over are examined.
Four of ten employees stay with their current employer for more than ten years
In 2023, 41.7% of the employees surveyed were employed with their current employer for at least ten years. 20.0% had had the same job for five to ten years and a good third (38.3%) indicated a job tenure of less than five years.
Short duration of employment due to fixed-term jobs
Among employees who had been employed for ten years and longer with their employer, 0.9% had a fixed-term employment contract. The proportion of fixed-term jobs is continuously increasing with a decreasing duration of employment: 30.0% of those with a duration of less than one year and 14.7% working between one and three years at the current job, had a fixed-term contract in 2023.
| Employment | Less than 1 year | 1 to less than 3 years | 3 to less than 5 years | 5 to less than 10 years | 10 years and more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1: Employed persons aged above 25 years. Source: Labour Force Survey | |||||
| Person has an open-ended contract | 70.0 | 85.3 | 93.3 | 97.6 | 99.1 |
| Person has a fixed-term contract | 30.0 | 14.7 | 6.7 | 2.4 | 0.9 |
Men more often employed for a longer period
While the shares of men and women who had worked for less than ten years at their current firm differed only marginally, men had slightly more often been employed for ten or more years (42.4%) than women with 40.9%.
Career start in part-time?
Part-time jobs are more common among employments with shorter job tenure. 36.8% of men and women who had been in employment for less than a year worked part time. This proportion is decreasing with an increasing duration of employment. Only 28.8% of persons employed for ten years and more with their current employer were part-time employed.
Unskilled employees are least likely to be employed for a long time with one employer. Only just under a third of them, the job tenure is longer than ten years. Among professionals and service occupations, the duration of employment with one employer is rather short, too.
Information on the Indicator
Description or definition
Percentage of employees (over 25 years) being employed less than one, one to less than three, three to less than five, five to less than ten or ten years and longer with the current employer in all employees (over 25 years).
Source
Labour Force Survey
Information for interpretation
The microcensus with the integrated European labour force survey has been redesigned in 2020. The list of questions and the concept of the sample survey were modified, and with the introduction of an online questionnaire, the form of data collection were also changed. The results from survey year 2020 onward are therefore comparable with those of previous years only to a limited extent.
Further methodological changes affecting the results were performed in 2005, 2011 and 2021. Consequently, the results for those years can be compared with the results for previous years to a limited extent only.
The extrapolation of microcensus data uses the population figures from the 2011 Census, which was conducted as at 9 May 2011. The results have been revised from 2010 onwards. With effect from the year 2016, the sample is based on the 2011 census data. This transition affects the comparability of the results with previous years.
For more information please refer to Methods: Quality Reports and Explanations (only in German).
Further information
Redesigned microcensus as of 2020