67.7% of mothers with children under 15 are employed

Press release: 12.512-103/21

Vienna, 2021-05-07 - For working mothers, the Corona pandemic is associated with particularly great challenges. As Statistics Austria reports on the occasion of Mother's Day on 9 May, 521 500 mothers with children under 15 years of age were employed in Austria in 2020.

Employment rate of mothers increased continuously

Over the past ten years, the employment rate (excl. parental leave) of women aged 15-64 with children below 15 years has risen from 64.1% (2010) to 67.7% (2020). Nevertheless, mothers still participate less actively in the labour force than men in the same family situation. The share of employed fathers with at least one child under 15 years remained almost constant in the comparison period and stood at 90.9% in 2020.

72.3% of all employed women with at least one child under 15 years work part-time

Although the employment rate of mothers has increased significantly, the volume of work has not increased to the same extent: Women are still more likely to work part-time or be marginally employed. In 2020, almost three-quarters (72.3%) of all employed mothers with at least one child under 15 years worked part-time. For fathers, the share was 7.3%.

71.3% of single mothers with children under 15 years are employed

For mothers in single-parent families, the double burden of employment and childcare is particularly high. In 2020, the majority of employed single parents with children under 15 years were women (68 100, 90.9%). The employment rate of single mothers with at least one child under 15 years was 71.3%. For mothers who live in a partnership and have children under 15 years, the share was significantly lower at 67.2%.

For more detailed results and further information concerning family and employment please refer to our website.

Information on methods, definitions:The definition of family used here corresponds to the nuclear family concept. This concept of family thus only includes persons living in the same household. According to the definition of family statistics, childrenare all biological, stepchildren or adopted children living in the same household with their parents or one parent, who live in the household without their own partner and do not yet have children themselves.
The results presented here were produced using data from the programme of the Microcensus Labour Force Survey. The microcensus is a sample survey of private households in which about 1 500 households are interviewed every week. The population in institutional households is not part of the Microcensus Labour Force Survey.
Employment according to the ILO concept:Persons with a normal working week of at least one hour are considered as employed. The reported results refer to persons aged 15 to 64 years. It is important to note, especially in the case of mothers, that according to common practice in labour force statistics, persons on parental leave are also included in the labour force, although they have not actively pursued their employment. This mainly affects mothers of small children and increases the employment rate. For the presentation of these results, women and men on parental leave were therefore not counted as part of the employed population.

For further inquiries please contact the the Labour Force Survey team in the Directorate Social Statistics, Statistics Austria:
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