Appendix B: Employment tables

Table B1: Family labour supply, families with children under 5 years old, 1984 and 2004
	1984	2004
	Couple parents (%)
Both employed	29.2	46.5
Mother employed full-time	10.6	13.8
Mother employed part-time	18.7	32.6
One employed	62.8	47.6
Neither employed	8.0	6.0
	Single parents (%)
Parent employed	20.6	29.8
Full-time	10.7	12.7
Part-time	9.9	17.1
Parent not employed	79.4	70.2
	Estimated totals ('000)
Couple families	798.0	818.0
Single-parent families	93.7	181.0
	Single parents (%)
Families with dependants aged <5 years	10.5	18.1

Source: ABS (1984) and ABS (2006a).

Table B2: Percentage employed, mothers and fathers by age of youngest child, 4–5 year-old cohort
	Mothers	Fathers
Has no younger siblings	60.3	92.3
Has younger sibling(s), youngest aged
<One	27.0	90.6
One	44.7	90.3
Two	52.8	94.3
Three or four	56.1	93.7
Total with younger siblings	46.2	92.4

Source: LSAC 2004, Wave 1.

Table B3: Mothers' return to work timing and whether study child has younger siblings, 4–5 year-old cohort (per cent)
Age of child at mother's first return to work	Has no younger siblings	Has younger siblings	Total
<3 months	9.9	9.4	9.6
3–6 months	10.9	12.5	11.6
6–12 months	17.5	20.3	18.8
1–2 years	12.9	11.5	12.2
2 years or more	19.3	11.8	15.8
Did not return to work	24.7	28.8	26.6
Never worked	4.9	5.8	5.3
	(n=2,647)	(n=2,336)	(n=4,983)

Source: LSAC 2004, Wave 1.

Note: Categories for age of the child at mother's return to work are taken directly from the questionnaire.

Table B4: Job autonomy by age of youngest child, employed parents (per cent)
Response	All mothers	All fathers
	Infant
Strongly disagree/disagree	17.2	15.6
Neutral	17.5	15.7
Agree/strongly agree	65.3	68.7
	(n=925)	(n=1,463)
	4–5 year old
Strongly disagree/disagree	17.4	14.9
Neutral	16.8	15.0
Agree/strongly agree	65.8	70.1
	(n=1,297)	(n=1,471)

Source: LSAC 2004, Wave 1.

Note: Job autonomy comes from responses to the statement 'I have a lot of freedom to decide how I do my own work'. Excludes those from the 4–5 year-old cohort with younger siblings, and those who were non-respondents to this question.

Table B5: Job security by age of youngest child, employed parents (per cent)
Job security	Mothers			Total fathers
Job security	Couple	Single	Total mothers	Total fathers
	Infant
Very secure	33.1	28.0	32.9	36.9
Secure	41.1	41.1	41.1	43.9
Not very secure	11.1	10.9	11.1	10.3
Very insecure	14.6	20.0	14.9	9.0
	(n=1,567)	(n=66)	(n=1,633)	(n=3,201)
	4–5 year old
Very secure	30.9	22.7	29.8	35.3
Secure	44.1	43.8	44.1	42.6
Not very secure	11.1	15.0	11.6	11.5
Very insecure	14.0	18.4	14.6	10.6
	(n=1,118)	(n=174)	(n=1,292)	(n=1,464)

Source: LSAC 2004, Wave 1.

Note: Excludes those from the 4–5 year-old cohort with younger siblings, and those who were non-respondents to this question.

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