A labour profile of working parents with young children

Across Canada, employment is measured on a monthly basis using the Labour Force Survey. While this survey is most commonly known for its estimates of employment and unemployment, it also captures key information on specific demographic groups, including working parents. Following a study on the “Labour market participation of parents with young children,” let’s take a closer look at the profile of moms and dads in Canada who have young children under the age of 6.    

Three decades: Has the employment landscape changed? 

The number of families with children younger than 6 years has fluctuated over the last three decades, peaking in 1995 at 1.64 million, and reaching a low in 2006 at 1.42 million. Since 2010, the number has increased and stabilized, hovering from 1.50 million to 1.57 million.  

During those three decades, the share of couple families varied little—from 84.0% in 1997 to 89.7% in 2021—but the share of those who were two-earner couples saw a leap of 14 percentage points from 1990 (47.1%) to 2021 (61.3%).

While various factors affect the economic structure of Canadian families, the increase in two-earner couples is in part attributable to a steady rise in the labour force participation of mothers with young children since the mid-1970s. The employment rate of mothers aged 25 to 54 with children younger than 6 years grew from 32% in 1976 to 59% in 1991 and to 70% in the mid-2000s. It recently peaked at 72% in 2019 and 2021.

For one-parent families, the share of working parents has increased over the last three decades. The employment rate of mothers in one-parent families increased from 54.0% in 2001 to 64.2% in 2019. The employment rate of fathers in one-parent families rose from 70.6% in 2001 to 82.6% in 2019.

Pandemic impacts 

During the peak years of COVID-19 pandemic years (2020 and 2021), the number and percentage of one-parent families with young children decreased and those of couple families increased compared with 2019. This may be related to the decline in divorces across Canada in 2020.

Millions of Canadian workers experienced either loss of employment or reduced working hours over the course of the pandemic. In Canada, the employment rates of women tended to be more affected by the pandemic than their male counterparts. On average, from March 2020 to February 2021, women accounted for 53.7% of the year-over-year employment losses.

Throughout the pandemic, many parents had to leave their jobs or reduce their hours to care for their children amid school and child care centre closures. From February 2020 (the month before the pandemic began) to April 2020 (when the first wave peaked), among couple families, the percentage of two earners decreased from 68.3% to 56.5%. Among mothers in one-parent families with children younger than 6 years, the employment rate decreased by 16 percentage points from February to April 2020.

Although many aspects of employment in Canada were affected at the onset of the pandemic, including the employment patterns of parents of young children, these changes were temporary. Generally, employment patterns in 2021 looked similar to those observed in 2019.

Employment patterns vary based on numerous demographic characteristics

The study analyzed patterns of employment and labour market characteristics based on a variety of factors, such as age of the youngest child, population group, education level and province of residence.

For example, the percentage of couple families that had two earners was highest in Quebec and Saskatchewan (74%) and lowest in Alberta (60%). The percentage of couple families that had single earners with a working father was lowest in Quebec and the Atlantic region (18%) and highest in Alberta (32%).

Find this study and others in the Economic and Social Reports portal.