Welfare-to-Work Reforms: Impact on Sole Parents

In recent years, the labour force participation rate of sole parents has been of growing concern in Australia and in some overseas countries. Wilson, Pech and Bates (1999:4), for example, showed that the labour force participation rates of sole parent mothers remained about 10 per cent lower than those of partnered mothers during the 1990s. While their analysis suggested a marginal increase in the labour force participation rates of both groups during the 1990s, it is clear that the pronounced increases in female labour force participation rates have been due primarily to growing participation by women without children. The labour force participation rates of sole parent fathers, while higher than for sole parent or partnered mothers, are still well below those of partnered fathers