Modeling and estimation using job duration data

A very general approach to the analysis of job duration is developed. The data are allowed to contain varying start dates, incomplete durations, and certain common problems encountered when personnel files are reorganized. Empirical results on almost 25,000 employees for a large corporation are presented. Basic properties of these data, e.g., median duration on the job, cannot be calculated directly from these data. This formal modeling approach allows estimation of the important characteristics of the data. In addition some well-known nonparametric methods for estimating medians are compared to those parametric estimates. The approach used on the particular data set described should be of value to any organization involved in human resource planning activities.