Analysis of Length of Employment Data and Suggestions
The question as asked is "How many weeks have the people who are working now been at their jobs?" This is different than asking, say, how many weeks a person worked in the past year. Our sample would not include a person who had found a job earlier in the year, worked for forty weeks and then was again unemployed. Likewise a high school student who just graduated would not have been unemployed the whole year but might still be included in such a sample.
There is a positive correlation between the age of the person and the number of weeks at the new job. This means that older workers tend to have more weeks at their new jobs than younger workers do. Some possible causes for this trend are:
The jobs that younger workers are finding are more likely to be dissolved.
It takes younger workers longer to find work.
Younger workers are not keeping their jobs as long.
Efforts to change this trend and lessen unemployment overall should address these issues.
A lack of training may be contributing to both the quality of jobs and the availability of jobs for younger workers. The older employees have been in the workforce long enough to acquire skills directly applicable to jobs. Training younger, unemployed workers in skills that are not in sufficient supply in the local workforce may give the younger workers an advantage.
Older workers also have developed organizational and social skills that make them more successful in the workplace. Education in conflict resolution, organizatinnal behavior, and life skills may benefit younger workers. Their gained confidence would help them win positions, and the new skills would help them keep the jobs that they do get.
Efforts to help younger workers gain a "track record" of work might help to alleviate the revolving state of employment of younger workers. Perhaps the community could establish a temporary agency. W...