Families Week facts and figures from the ABS
'Work and Family - getting the balance right' is the theme of National Families
Week 2008 (11 May - 17 May), and the ABS has prepared the following
snapshot of work and the Australian family.
More mothers with children under 15 were employed in March 2008
than at any time in the last decade; 63% were employed in March
2008, compared with 54% ten years earlier; 60% of these mothers
worked part time.
92% of fathers with children under 15 were employed in March 2008;
93% of these worked full time.
In 2006, mothers (with children under 15) in full-time employment spent
on average 18 hours per week on domestic activities - twice as much
as fathers employed full time.
Fathers employed full time spent on average 52 hours per week in
employment-related activities compared to 34 hours per week for
mothers employed full time.
Mothers in part-time employment spent on average 19 hours per week
in employment-related activities, 19 hours caring for children, and 23
hours on domestic activities.
As employment among mothers has increased, so has formal child
care use. In June 2005, 23% of children under 12 attended formal care,
compared with 14% nearly a decade earlier (March 1996).
The proportion of children under 12 being cared for informally
(including by relatives or friends), has remained fairly constant over the
last decade at around 33-37%. Grandparents provided care for nearly
60% of these children in June 2005.
In 2006 there were 2.2 million grandparents who had grandchildren
under 15. In a 12 month period, 83% of these grandparents had been
babysitters for their grandchildren; 39% provided school holiday care;
and 28% regularly looked after their grandchildren while the children's
parents were at work.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Media requests and interviews
Ilona Fraser (02) 6252 7480; 0418 202 580
Statistical clarification
Heather Crawford (02) 6252 5742; 0429 994 490
NEWS 
