Page 4 The Skanner CAREERS EDITION June 1, 2016 CAREERS ADAM ALLINGTON For The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — A new poll says more than 40 percent of America’s baby boomers stayed with theiremployer  for more than 20 years. But it’s unlikely that their children or grandchil- dren will experience the same job tenure. The survey of more than 1,000 Americans 50 and older by the Associ- ated Press-NORC Center for Public Afairs Re- search shows that 41 per- cent of those employed workers have spent two decades with the same company, including 18 percent who’ve stayed at least 30 years. But it’s a trend more common among the old- er baby boomers than younger ones, and tradi- tional pensions appear to be one of the driving factors. Among those who have had at least 20 years with a single  employer, the survey found that about half are excited about re- tirement, but a third are anxious about their post- work lives. David McQuinn, 61, is retiring Tuesday ater 30 years with MiTek, a con- struction and engineer- ing irm in suburban St. Louis. He says there were times he thought about leaving but he liked his co-workers and his se- nior position and also owned stock in the com- pany. “I started working young and I’ve been a man in a hurry my whole life,” he says, “and now I’m in a hurry to not be in a hurry.” His experience ex- empliies a trait among boomers: more attach- ment to the company than the younger gener- ations. But even among older Americans there’s a gap in employment ten- ure: Half of those aged 65 and up but only a third of those age 50 to 64 have stayed with the same em- ployer for at least two de- cades. The shit may be less about diferences in atti- tude than changes in jobs — and beneits. AP PHOTO/JEFF ROBERSON Poll: Age, Income Factors in Staying with Single Employer David McQuinn poses for a photo Tuesday, May 10, 2016, in Chesterield, Mo. McQuinn, 61, is retiring Tuesday after 30 years with MiTek, a construction and engineering irm in suburban St. Louis, a length of time with one employer that is unlikely to be achieved by many younger workers. About two-thirds of those who stayed with one  employer  for 20 or more years had a pen- sion, according to the survey, compared with only a third of those who had never stayed that long with one employer. Those deined beneit pension plans are slowly disappearing. The Bu- “ pital before applying for and getting a job as a clin- ical assistant. She kept that job for 17 years, before moving to a neighboring children’s hospital. Liting children into hospital beds, she recalls, was easier on her back then moving adults. “I thought about look- ing for other jobs, but Higher churn in the labor market also means compa- nies will have to work harder to hire and retain the work- ers they need reau of Labor Statistics reported that only 18 per- cent of private workers were covered by these plans in 2011, down from 35 percent in the early 1990s. More common now are plans like 401(k) s, which are more porta- ble from one employer to another. The agency has report- ed that a larger propor- tion of older workers than younger workers had more tenure on the job. For example it said, in January 2014, the aver- age tenure with the cur- rent  employer  was 7.9 years for people 45 to 54, compared to 10.4 years for those 55 to 64. “Think of all the choic- es people have today. I mean, who ever heard of a social-media analyst ive years ago?” says Joe Coughlin, the director of the Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology’s AgeLab. Coughlin says higher churn in the labor mar- ket also means compa- nies will have to work harder to hire and retain the workers they need, and this creates leverage. “Millennials think this way instinctively,” he said. “They’ve seen their parents laid of by these large corporations, so there is less trust.” Christina Guerrero worked in the mid-1980s as a housekeeper at Aus- tin’s Brackenridge Hos- almost any hospital these days would require me to go back to school to inish my GED, so that was a big reason for staying put,” says Guerrero, now 61. According to the AP- NORC survey, young- er baby boomers were much more likely to have gone back to school in the past ive years: 30 per- cent of those age 50-64, compared to 19 percent of those 65 and older. Most went for addi- tional training because their  employer  required it or they wanted to learn something new or fun. Only 17 percent said they received training to start a new career. Joe Abraham, 65, says he’s sure he “dodged a few bullets along the way” during his 36-year career as an attorney at Ford Motor Co. Now retired, he says the raises and beneits he got from Ford were not worth giving up for something else. Plus, he just liked his colleagues. The AP-NORC Center survey was conducted March 8-27 by NORC at the University of Chica- go, with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foun- dation. It involved online and telephone inter- views with 1,075 people aged 50 and older na- tionwide, most of whom are members of NORC’s probability-based Amer- iSpeak panel.