ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics : Over half of single parents are employed (Media Release)

	MEDIA RELEASE
12 January 2017	Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	03/2017

Over half of single parentsare employed

Over half (363,200 or 59 per cent) of one parent families with children or dependent students (aged 15-24 years) had an employed parent in June 2016, according to statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

Jennifer Humphrys, Director of Household Income and Labour Market Section at the ABS, said that in recent years the proportion of one parent families with an employed parent with children or dependent students had remained stable.

'The vast majority (83 per cent) of one parent families with children or dependent students were headed by a single mother,'said Ms Humphrys. Over half (56 per cent) of one parent families with children or dependent students headed by a mother were employed, compared to 72 per cent of one parent families with children or dependent students headed by a father.

Employment of parents in one parent families generally increased with the age of the youngest dependant, from 40 per cent (youngest dependant under 5 years old) to 72 per cent (youngest dependant 15-24 years old).

Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families publication uses data from the ABS Labour Force survey to determine family relationships and the labour force status of the 6.7 million families living in Australia.

For more information, please refer to Labour Force, Australia: Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families (cat. no. 6224.0.55.001), available for free download from the ABS website: http://www.abs.gov.au.

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