Abstract
Data from the National Longitudinal Survey Youth cohort are used to examine the factors that influence the probability of new entrants leaving their first job, including the differential effects of company-provided training, apprenticeships, and training from for-profit proprietary institutions. The results indicate that company training in the US is firm-specific, even for young workers in their first job. Those young people who had some formal on-the-job training were much less likely to leave their employer, while those who participated in some form of off-the-job training were more likely to leave. For women, on-the-job training increases the length of time in employment in the first job, while off-the-job training increases their turnover probability.