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BUSINESS

New Low: 35% of Workers Plan on Staying At Current Company for More Than Five Years

Though a plurality of American workers still believes staying at their current company offers the best opportunity for career advancement, fewer plan on staying at that company for the long term.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Employed Adults shows that 35% now plan on staying at their current company for more than five years, down from 44% in September and the lowest level measured since early 2009.  Nineteen percent (19%) say they’ll spend one to five years at their current place of employment, up from 13% two months ago and the highest finding since January. Only seven percent (7%) say they’ll spend less than one year at their company, while 39% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

A majority (65%) of all working Americans have worked at their current company for five years or more.

However, most workers (71%) continue to say it will be their choice when they leave their current jobs. Just 11% think it will be their employer’s choice, while 18% more are not sure. Most workers have been confident it will be their choice to leave their current job over the past two years. 

Forty-five percent (45%) believe they have a better opportunity for career advancement if they stay with their current company, while 30% think their chances are better if they go to work for someone else. Another 25% aren’t sure which course is better. Since April 2009, 41% to 51% of workers have reported they have a better chance for career advancement by staying at their current companies rather than going somewhere else. In that same period, 30% to 38% have said they’d be better off careerwise if they looked for work elsewhere.

(Want a free daily e-mail update ? If it's in the news, it's in our polls).  Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 563 Employed Adults was conducted on November 4-5, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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