The study found other notable demographic shifts, including that unmarried and married mothers with young children are increasingly participating in the labor force at equal rates. The change is occurring after years of unmarried mothers working at considerably higher rates.
“From 2016 through 2019, the average labor force participation rate for married women with young children was 63.2 percent and for unmarried women with young children was 72.6 percent,” the Hamilton Project said.
Yet “in the first six months of 2023, married women with young children had a labor force participation rate of 69.0 percent, and it was 72.1 percent for those unmarried.”
The convergence happened due to both the sharp decline in working unmarried mothers in 2020 coupled with an increase in both married and unmarried working mothers in the following years, according to data graphs produced by the Hamilton Project.
The researchers noted that “labor force participation among mothers with young children has always been and continues to be lower than those without children or who have older children,” a factor they said was changing due to “tight labor markets, the changing nature of and compensation for work, evolving norms around working, and the need to work when one’s children are young.”
The researchers further noted that “work-from-home flexibilities that make it easier for mothers to take and keep a job” could be driving the spike in labor force participation.
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