Notes on the data: Families

Jobless families with children aged less than 15 years, 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. 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 [1].

At the 2021 Census, 11.4% of families with children under 15 years of age met this definition.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Children without an employed parent [Internet]. In: Measures of Australia's Progress, 2010. (ABS Cat. no. 1370.0). Canberra: ABS; 2010 [cited 2013 Oct 18]. Available from: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/1370.0~2010~Chapter~Children%20without%20an%20employed%20parent%20%284.5.2%29
Data from PHIDU workbooks, data release November 2022, available from https://phidu.torrens.edu.au/social-health-atlases/data.

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: Families with children under 15 years in which no parent is employed

Denominator: Total families with children under 15 years

Detail of analysis: Percent

Source: Compiled by PHIDU, Torrens University Australia based on the ABS Census of Population and Housing, August 2021.