Latest stats on Working Parents

Need a snapshot on what Australian working parents are currently thinking?

General Barriers and Triggers for Parents Returning to Work

The top 3 barriers for parents returning to work are lack of flexible jobs (90%), cost of child care (57%) and a general lack of self confidence (26%).

The main reasons for returning to work include income (85%), social interaction (50%), maintain skills (48%) and career aspirations (38%).

Workplace flexibility

Nearly 60% of CareerMums survey respondents stated that their current/previous employer did not have a flexible work or parental leave policy, or they were unaware that these policies existed.

o 35% of respondents said that working flexibly for their current/previous employer depended on their manager.
o 24% said that their employer embraced working flexibly.
o 16% of respondents identified that their workplace did not offer flexible work arrangements.
o 11% stated that senior management did not promote working flexibly so it was not encouraged.

Over 75% of respondents did not know about the Government’s new National Employment Standards (introduced in Jan 2010) which include the option for parents caring for children under school age to request flexible work arrangements.

Child Care Rebate

Around 55% of respondents stated that the 50 per cent child care rebate has made no difference to their plans to return to work or work more hours. Over 40% said that the rebate made some difference or a huge difference in either returning to work or working more hours.

Paid Parental Leave

90% of respondents believe that the Federal Government funded paid parental leave (due in November 2011) is an important employment entitlement.

Impact of the Economic Downturn for Parents

* 28% of respondents believe that the economic downturn will not affect their employment – so they expect to be in the same role and do not expect to be made redundant.
* 23% of respondents are considering a return to work sooner than expected.
* 15% indicated that there will be no change to their current plan of being on parental leave or staying at home with their children for an extended period of time.
* Around 10% of respondents have had their work hours reduced or their role has been made redundant.

Source: Survey stats from CareerMums www.careermums.com.au