Number of working mums with a live-in partner falls

Employment rates among parents with dependent children dropped by 0.3% to 67.7% this year due to a fall in the number of working mums who live with a partner, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Employment rates among parents with dependent children dropped by 0.3% to 67.7% this year due to a fall in the number of working mums who live with a partner, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The employment rate for people without dependent children increased by 0.3 percentage points to 67.7 per cent between April and June this year. The statistics follow a report that women are being driven out of the workplace by high childcare costs.

The ONS figures show the number of workless households – that is, people who are economically inactive, such as those who have retired early – has fallen, but the number where all adults under 64 are unemployed has risen.

The ONS statistics also show the North East had the highest percentage of workless households; that the number of households in which no adult has ever worked was 370,000, up 18,000 from a year earlier; and that 1.8 million children are living in workless households, down 26,000 from a year earlier.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "The welcome fall in workless households is thanks largely to government support in helping lone parents into work.

"But as ministers talk tough on the unemployed, their own economic policies, which have created record female unemployment and harsh cutbacks in childcare support, are likely to mean the number of workless households will rise again.

"The increase in households where no one has ever worked is disappointing but as over a quarter of these are student houses who wouldn't be expected to work, it would be wrong to focus too much on a relatively small group.

"The only solution to long-term unemployment is job creation coming from sustained economic growth."

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