CALIFORNIA'S JOB PICTURE CHANGING; STUDY FINDS RISE IN EMPLOYMENT TURNOVER, MORE HOURS OF TOIL.

Byline: Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writer

Despite a healthy economy, a majority of Californians are holding jobs for shorter periods of time, have two or more adults working per household and are working longer hours, according to a study released today.

Hoping to dissect the nature of today's labor market, researchers at the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, conducted a yearlong statewide survey of more than 1,700 adults and found that the nature of employment in California has changed fundamentally.

While the study found that unemployment rates are low, researchers also found that jobs are increasingly held for shorter periods. Among adults who are employed, almost half (45 percent) report having worked for their current employer for two years or less, while 22 percent worked less than one year for their employer. The median job tenure is three years.

``As a result of the dynamic nature of the economy, turnover in jobs is at unprecedented levels,'' the study concluded.

The study, titled ``The California Work and Health Survey'' also found that rates of job displacement are high, with one in six California adults reporting that over the last three years they either have lost a job or left one because they expected to lose it.

A profile of the work force shows that almost half of those employed are 18 to 34 years old, 43 percent are female and 57 percent are male. More than half of the work force (58 percent) is white, 27 percent is Latino, 7 percent is African-American and 8 percent is Asian.

A large chunk of those employed tend to work long hours, with about a third of the state's workers putting in 45 hours or more per week and more than 40 percent reporting that their work pace is fast and without breaks.

More often than not, households tend to have more than one adult wage-earner (52 percent), but only 10 percent of workers hold down two or more jobs, the study found.

People who have not finished college, those age 55 and older and those in poor health continue to have low rates of employment, the study found.

On a more positive note, 60 percent of the state's workers said they have the flexibility to change the hours they start and end work. And more than one-third of those employed said that within the last year they were promoted or made a job change that improved their pay or status.

Despite the economy's strength, Los Angeles County reported the highest number (24 percent) of household incomes below 125 percent of the federal poverty level. Statewide, 18 percent of those surveyed reported household incomes below 125 percent of the poverty line.

Workers who tend to have difficulty living on their current incomes tend to be female, under the age of 35 and not in excellent health. Those who have no difficulty tend to be male, 35 or older and in excellent health.

A sample of California adults will be surveyed annually about their employment and health for the study, which is funded by the Work and Health Initiative of the California Wellness Foundation. The results have a sampling error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

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Chart: Working Californians