RECENT TRENDS IN THE EMPLOYMENT RATE OF SOLE MOTHERS IN NEW ZEALAND.

• Author: Goodger, Kay
• Position: Statistical Data Included

Abstract

Using Household Labour Force data for mothers living with dependent children, this brief monitoring report updates trends in sole mothers' employment rates to March 2001. The paper provides further evidence of some of the developments that were anticipated by recent reforms, such as a rise in full-time employment, particularly among sole mothers with older children. The paper shows that Household Labour Force data can be used to monitor levels of employment among sole mothers on a more regular basis than the five-yearly Population Census, providing a valuable tool in evaluating the effectiveness of policy change in this area.

INTRODUCTION

The relatively low employment rate of sole mothers with dependent children has been an issue of policy concern for many years in New Zealand, particularly over the last decade. As measured in the five-yearly Population Census, the proportion of sole mothers employed fell from 40% in 1976 to 27% in 1991, the second lowest proportion, after Ireland, in a study of 20 countries (Bradshaw et al. 1996). The 1996 Census showed that the rate of employment among sole mothers had recovered to 36%.

Two recent papers have investigated in different ways some of the factors that are likely to influence the employment rates of sole mothers. Goodger and Larose (1999) concluded that policy changes alone could not explain the pattern of employment decline from 1976 to 1991 and the subsequent recovery in the five years to 1996. They highlighted the importance of the overall level of economic activity and demographic change, such as the rate of growth in sole parenthood and the changing age profile of sole mothers and their children.

Wilson (2000) used benefit dynamics data to examine patterns of benefit use by successive cohorts of entrants to the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) as they passed through the period of the Employment Task Force reforms. She found large changes in the propensity to declare earnings and in the level of earnings declared, changes that were consistent with the expected impacts on participation in part-time employment following the changes to the abatement regime in July 1996. The findings of this paper strongly suggest that these effects resulted from policy change rather than the economic, administrative and demographic changes that coincided with them.

In a paper presented to the Labour Employment and Work Conference, Ball and Wilson (2000) extended this cohort analysis to cover the...