Changes in the Labour Force Status of Lone and Couple Australian Mothers, 1983-2005

Over the last two decades there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of lone mothers employed part-time, while the proportion employed full-time was much the same in 2005 as it was in the early 1980s. The experience of couple mothers is quite different, with both full-time and part-time employment increasing at similar rates. The net effect is that both lone and couple mothers have had similar increases in overall employment rates but that the nature of the growth in employment has been different among the lone and couple mother populations. This paper uses data from the 1986 and 2001 Australian Censuses to explore the possible reasons for the differences in the labour market trends of lone and couple mothers.