Trends in labor force participation of married mothers of infants: following a long-term advance, the labor force activity of married mothers of infants began to decline in the late 1990s for a variety of demographic groups and since 2000 has been relatively stable

Monthly Labor Review, Feb, 2007 by Sharon R. Cohany, Emy Sok

The most striking feature of women's labor market gains during the post-World War II period was the entry of married mothers into the work force. In 1948, only about 17 percent of married mothers were in the labor force. By the 1980s, labor force participation had become an integral part of their lives. In 1985, for example, 61 percent of married mothers were working or looking for work. (See chart 1.) By 1995, their labor force participation rate had reached 70 percent. In fact, married mothers accounted for much of the increase in total labor force participation during the postwar period. (1)

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In recent years, however, the labor force participation of married mothers, especially those with young children, has stopped its advance. (2) In 2005, the participation rate of married mothers with preschoolers was 60 percent, about 4 percentage points lower than its peak in 1997 and 1998. (3) Married mothers with children under a year old (infants) showed the most dramatic changes. After reaching a peak of 59.2 percent in 1997, the participation rate for married mothers of infants fell by about 6 percentage points to 53.3 percent in 2000 and has shown no clear trend since then. In comparison, the participation rate of married mothers of school-age children (aged 6 to 17) fell by just 2 percentage points, from 77 percent in 1997 to about 75 percent in 2005. (4) (See chart 2.)

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This article explores the characteristics of married mothers of infants and recent trends in their labor force participation. The data in this article are from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of 60,000 households that provides a large amount of demographic, family relationship, and labor force information. (5)

Profile of married mothers of infants

Before investigating the trends in labor force participation rates among married mothers of infants, this article begins with a look at their demographic characteristics. In 2005, there were 2.4 million married mothers whose youngest child was less than 1 year old. The characteristics of married mothers with infants vary somewhat from those of married mothers overall. Not surprisingly, those with infants were younger, on average, than married mothers in general. Among married mothers of infants, in 2005, about 79 percent were under the age of 35. In contrast, just 36 percent of all married mothers were under 35. (See tables 1 and 4.)

Married mothers aged 25 and older with infants are well educated, on average. Nearly half (47 percent) had a college degree, compared with 35 percent of all married mothers of that age group. (6) Another 26 percent of married mothers of infants had completed 1 to 3 years of college, compared with 29 percent of all mothers. The proportions of married mothers of infants who were white non-Hispanic (67 percent), black non-Hispanic (7 percent), Asian non-Hispanic (7 percent), or Hispanic (18 percent) were very similar to those of other mothers. (7) About 21 percent of mothers with infants were born outside the United States, also about the same as the proportion for all mothers. (See table 1.)

Mothers of infants have more children, on average, than mothers of school-age children. For the mothers of infants, 27 percent had three or more children under age 18, compared with 16 percent of mothers of school-age children. Among married mothers of infants, about one-third had just one child, compared with 44 percent of mothers of school-age children. (See table 2.)

Trends among demographic groups

A decline in participation rates such as that experienced by married mothers of infants in the late 1990s can reflect a variety of factors, including weaker labor market conditions (such as slow earnings or job growth, employers having fewer job openings or offering fewer family-friendly policies); demographic changes (such as a shift in the group's age, ethnicity, or foreign-born composition); changes in cultural or societal attitudes (a society might begin to place a higher value on stay-at-home mothers, for example); and shifts in personal preferences. (8) Information on employers' policies and individuals' attitudes is not collected in the CPS, but the survey is a rich source of demographic data.

The subsections that follow discuss participation rate trends in several key demographic categories. Educational attainment. The educational attainment of women has risen dramatically in the post-World War II period. For instance, among all women aged 25 and older, the proportion with at least 1 year of college more than tripled, rising from about 15 percent in 1960 to 53 percent in 2005. (9) (Among men, this proportion almost tripled, going from 18 percent to 53 percent.) Labor force activity rose at every level of education. The participation rate for women with a college degree rose from about 57 percent in 1962 to 73 percent in 2005, while the rate for women with some college (but not a bachelor's degree) went from 42 percent to 67 percent. (10)