May 02, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Fewer families with children under 18 have employed parent

Among the 35.4 million families with children under 18, 90.2 percent had an employed parent in 2005, down by 0.3 percentage point from 2004.

Percent of families with an employed parent among families with children under 18, by family type, 2005
[Chart data—TXT]

This proportion has trended down since its most recent peak of 92.0 percent in 2000.

In 2005, the mother was employed in 71.2 percent of families maintained by women, and the father was employed in 83.1 percent of those maintained by men. Among married-couple families, 97.1 percent had an employed parent in 2005.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see Employment Characteristics of Families in 2005 (PDF) (TXT), USDL news release 06-731.

 

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