Employment: Higher Among Parents

Yesterday we took a look at the (lack of) employment among teens... today we look at employment of their parents.

The BLS reports:

Forty-four percent of all families included children (sons, daughters, step- children, and adopted children) under age 18. Among the 34.8 million families with children, 87.8 percent had an employed parent in 2009, down from 90.0 per-cent in 2008. The mother was employed in 67.8 percent of families maintained by women with no spouse present in 2009, and the father was employed in 76.6 percent of those maintained by men with no spouse present.

Among married-couple families with children, 95.7 percent had an employed parent in 2009, down from 97.0 percent in 2008. Both the mother and father were employed in 58.9 percent of married-couple families with children in 2009, also lower than a year earlier.

So, do couples with kids tend to be employed more often to support those kids... or do those with secure jobs, tend to be more likely to have kids? Either way... it seems that those with (or without) kids are all feeling the pain of the recent downturn.

Source: BLS