Notes on the data: Families

Children aged less than 15 years in jobless families, 2021

 

Policy context:  Families with no employed parent ('jobless families') not only experience substantial economic disadvantage but may also have reduced social opportunities that affect their wellbeing and health.

Children who live without an employed parent may be at higher risk of experiencing financial hardship and other disadvantage in the short to medium term. They may not have a role model of employment to follow, and so the joblessness of the parent(s) may mean that such children are more likely to have outcomes such as welfare dependency in the long-term [1]. In some families, the reason the parent is without a job may be to care for children or to undertake study to try to improve the future economic prospects of the household. However, most of the children living without an employed parent live in lone-parent households with limited resources [2].

In August 2021 there were 196,009 children aged 0–14 years in jobless couple families and a further 327,197 children at these ages in jobless one parent families [3].

References

  1. Hancock K, Edwards B, Zubrick S. Echoes of disadvantage across the generations? The influence of long-term joblessness and separation of grandparents on grandchildren. Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2013.
  2. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Labour Force, Australia: labour force status and other characteristics of families, June 2011. (ABS Cat. no. 6224.0.55.001). Canberra: ABS, 2011.
  3. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Labour Force, Australia: labour force status and other characteristics of families, June 2017. (ABS Cat. no. 6224.0.55.001). Canberra: ABS, 2017
 

Geography:  Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

 

Numerator:  Children under 15 years in families in which no parent is employed

 

Denominator:  Total children under 15 years

 

Detail of analysis:  Percent

 

Source:  Compiled by PHIDU based on the ABS Census of Population and Housing, August 2021 (unpublished data).

 

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