Mothers are now as likely to go out to work as women without children, figures showed yesterday. The historic landmark reached last year means just one mother in four stays at home to raise children. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed 74.1 per cent of mothers with children under 16, or between 16 and 18 if they are still at school, are regarded as ‘participating in the labour market’. By comparison, 75 per cent of women without dependent children were either in work or looking for a job last year. Mothers are now as likely to go out to work as women without children, figures showed yesterday . In the mid-1990s, only two thirds of mothers had jobs, while then, as now, three in four childless women were working. The gap has closed because there are now half a million more women with children under five in work, or looking for jobs, than in 1996. There are also 200,000 more women with children aged between five and ten in the labour market. Mothers were briefly more likely to have jobs than women without families in 2013, the ONS report revealed, but last year more than 350,000 childless women entered the growing labour market. The latest figures will be welcomed by Coalition ministers. Chancellor George Osborne said in his Budget speech on Wednesday that a key element of the Government’s ‘massive moment’ in job creation, giving Britain its highest-ever employment rate, was ‘more women in work than ever before’. Ministers have claimed credit for raising state subsidies for childcare from £2billion to £3billion a year since 2010. But critics of the Government’s drive for more mothers to go out to work say many are reluctant to do so and would prefer to stay at home to bring up their children. The historic landmark reached last year means just one mother in four stays at home to raise children (picture posed by models) Author and family commentator Jill Kirby said the figures were a result of government efforts to persuade mothers that ‘children are better off in childcare’, adding: ‘Children are losing out – a string of different childcare workers is no substitute for the love of a mother.’ Imogen Thompson, of the pressure group Mothers at Home Matter, said: ‘We question whether this is what all women want, or whether many are forced into returning to the labour market before they feel they, or their children, are ready.’ The new estimates are based on the large-scale Labour Force Survey covering women who either have jobs or are unemployed and looking for work. The ONS report said benefit changes that have pressed single parents into looking for work may have influenced the change. It added: ‘Other government policies, for example to fund 570 hours of free early education childcare a year in England for all three to four-year-olds, will have provided additional incentives to engage with the labour market.’ The biggest change has been among mothers of children under five. In 1996, 1.6million of them were in the labour market, compared with 2.1million last year. This represents a rise from 54.5 per cent of mothers of under-fives in work in 1996 to 65 per cent now. More mothers of older children are also working, but the rise has been much less steep, while the rates for women without dependents have not changed in nearly 20 years. The report said 74.5 per cent of all adult women had jobs in 2014, compared with 71.3 per cent in 1994. The most popular jobs for women are either in teaching and education, or ‘caring personal services’, including medical work, or in shops.
Just one in four mothers stay at home to raise their children, figures reveal . Around 74% of mothers with children under 16 are 'in the labour market'
Meanwhile 75% of women without children are in work or looking for it . In the mid-1990s, only two thirds of Britain's mothers were working .