Number of UK working mothers with dependent children on the rise
The number of UK working mothers with dependent children has risen by over a million in the past 20 years, according to the country’s Office for National Statistics (ONS). Nearly 73.7% of women in this category are now employed, up 11.8% from 1996. Women with children aged between three and four were the least likely to work full-time, and the most likely to have part-time employment, though even this group has seen drastic growth.
 
 

The number of mothers with dependent children employed in England has surged by more than a million over the past two decades, according to official figures.

The Office for National Statistics said there had been a step-change in the employment rate for working mothers since records began in 1996 with almost three-quarters of women with dependent children either in full-time or part-time work.

Encouraging women with young children back into the jobs market has been a priority for Labour and Conservative governments, with the latest initiative an offer of 30 hours free childcare for eligible working families.

The ONS said the figures showed there were 4.9 million mothers with dependent children in work in 2017, up from 3.7 million in 1996. The employment rate rose by 11.8 percentage points to 73.7% over the same period.

Although the ONS said women with three- and four-year-old children were least likely to work full-time – and the most likely to work part-time – it found there had been a marked increase in employment among this group.

Mothers were more likely to have a full-time job when their children went to secondary school at 11, the ONS said. Childcare responsibilities tended to make it more likely that mothers of younger children worked part-time.

The ONS statistician Emily Glastonbury said: “The continuing rise in the number of working mothers has been a major feature of the labour market in England in the last two decades. Reasons for this might include more flexible working practices, shared parental leave and changes to government policy on the availability of childcare.”



The ONS said single parents were less likely to be in employment than parents in a couple. In 2017, 71.7% of single fathers were working, compared with 93% of fathers in a couple; and 68.5% of single mothers were in employment, as opposed to 75% of mothers in a couple.

Single mothers were least likely to be employed when the youngest dependent child was aged under three, at 48.4%. Single fathers were least likely to be in employment when their youngest dependent child was aged three or four (62.3%).