Working mothers remain a large part of the U.S. labor force, but employment rates vary with children’s ages, marital status, and the transition to a first birth. In the 2024 annual average, 25.159 million women with their own children under 18 were in the labor force, while women living with young children also spent substantial time on childcare and physical care.
Contents
- How many mothers work in the United States?
- Employment by marital status and children’s ages
- Employment among mothers of infants and toddlers
- Working before and after a first birth
- Paid leave, unpaid leave, and job exits
- Work and caregiving time
- What the measures include
How many mothers work in the United States?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counted 34.018 million women with their own children under age 18 in the civilian noninstitutional population in the 2024 annual average. Of these women, 25.159 million were in the labor force. Their labor-force participation rate was 74.0%, and their employment-population ratio was 71.3%.
The same BLS release counted 24.264 million employed mothers with their own children under 18. Among employed mothers, 19.221 million usually worked full time and 5.043 million usually worked part time. There were also 895,000 unemployed women with their own children under 18, producing a 3.6% unemployment rate for mothers in this measure. These figures come from the BLS Employment Characteristics of Families News Release, 2024 A01 Results.
| 2024 annual average measure | Mothers with own children under 18 |
|---|---|
| Civilian noninstitutional population | 34.018 million |
| In the labor force | 25.159 million |
| Labor-force participation rate | 74.0% |
| Employed | 24.264 million |
| Usually working full time | 19.221 million |
| Usually working part time | 5.043 million |
| Unemployed | 895,000 |
| Unemployment rate | 3.6% |
The BLS definition is specific: “own children” means biological, step, or adopted children under 18 living in the household. It excludes nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and other children.
Employment by marital status and children’s ages
Employment patterns differed by marital status in 2024. Married mothers with a spouse present and their own children under 18 had a 72.3% labor-force participation rate. This group included 16.743 million employed mothers, including 13.134 million full-time workers and 3.609 million part-time workers.
Mothers with other marital statuses had a higher labor-force participation rate, at 77.7%. The group included 7.521 million employed mothers, and its unemployment rate was 6.1%. The participation and unemployment measures describe different parts of the labor-force picture: participation includes people who are working or actively seeking work, while unemployment counts people in the labor force who are not employed.
The age of the youngest child also mattered. Mothers whose youngest child was ages 6 to 17 had a 78.0% labor-force participation rate in 2024 and included 12.096 million full-time workers. Mothers with children under age 6 had a 68.3% participation rate and 9.325 million employed people.
These comparisons are annual averages, not a count of every mother who worked at any point during the year. They also do not show why a mother was employed, unemployed, working part time, or outside the labor force.
Employment among mothers of infants and toddlers
The transition into early parenthood is visible in the BLS breakdown for mothers whose youngest child was under age 3. In 2024, 8.063 million mothers had their own youngest child under 3. Their labor force totaled 5.275 million, for a 65.4% labor-force participation rate. The group included 5.067 million employed mothers, of whom 3.822 million usually worked full time.
Participation varied by the exact age of the youngest child:
- 61.9% for mothers whose youngest child was under 1 year old.
- 64.7% for mothers whose youngest child was 1 year old.
- 69.6% for mothers whose youngest child was 2 years old.
Among mothers whose youngest child was under 1, 1.500 million were employed in the 2024 annual average. The age-specific rates describe differences in labor-force participation, not necessarily a single mother’s path over time. A mother counted when her child was an infant may not be the same person counted in a later age group, and the annual averages do not identify the childcare or leave arrangements behind each outcome.
Working before and after a first birth
The Census Bureau’s 2022 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) study provides a different perspective: work around a first birth. Among first-time mothers aged 30 or older at their first birth, 73.9% worked leading up to the birth. The comparable figure was 70.3% for those aged 25 to 29, 39.0% for those aged 18 to 19, and 28.0% for those younger than 18 at their first birth.
Marital timing was also associated with employment during pregnancy. Among first-time mothers whose first birth occurred before their first marriage, 50.9% were employed during the pregnancy. The figure was 65.7% when the first birth occurred during the first marriage and 71.3% when the first birth occurred after the first marriage ended.
Among mothers who worked during the pregnancy of their first child, 84.2% of those younger than 18 at first birth worked after the birth. The comparable share was 86.8% among mothers aged 30 or older at first birth. By education, 83.0% of mothers with less than a high-school education and 86.9% of mothers with a bachelor’s degree or higher worked after the birth among those who had worked during pregnancy. The Census report says that difference was not statistically significant.
These are first-birth work-history measures from the 2022 SIPP study, not 2024 employment rates. The relevant source is Parental Leave and Employment Patterns for First-Time Parents in the United States: 2022.
Paid leave, unpaid leave, and job exits
Leave use increased across the first-child birth cohorts reported in the SIPP study. Among mothers whose first child was born before 1994, 39.9% used a form of paid leave after the birth. The share was 42.8% for first-child births from 1994 to 2003, 43.8% for births from 2004 to 2013, and 49.1% for births from 2014 to 2022.
| First-child birth cohort | Used paid leave | Took unpaid leave |
|---|---|---|
| Before 1994 | 39.9% | Not reported in the supplied comparison |
| 1994–2003 | 42.8% | 23.8% |
| 2004–2013 | 43.8% | 24.3% |
| 2014–2022 | 49.1% | 27.3% |
Unpaid leave was reported for 23.8% of mothers whose first child was born from 1994 to 2003, 24.3% of those with births from 2004 to 2013, and 27.3% of those with births from 2014 to 2022. For the 2014–2022 cohort, about 12% quit their job or were let go after the birth.
The SIPP definitions matter when interpreting these percentages. Paid leave includes paid maternity or paternity leave, sick leave, or vacation leave. Leave arrangements can overlap, so paid and unpaid leave percentages should not be added together. The figures describe first-child birth cohorts and do not establish that a change in cohort outcomes was caused by a particular policy or workplace practice.
Work and caregiving time
Employment statistics do not measure all of the time women spend caring for children. In the 2024 annual average, women living in households with children under age 6 spent an average of 3.0 hours per day providing primary childcare. They spent another 1.3 hours per day providing physical care and 19 minutes per day traveling for household-child care.
For women living in households with children under 18, average primary childcare time was 1.79 hours per day. The average was 1.90 hours on a weekday and 1.51 hours on a weekend day or holiday. Women living in households with children under 13 spent an average of 5.72 hours per day providing secondary childcare.
The BLS American Time Use Survey reports these averages in its 2024 A01 results. The measures cover women living with household children, who may include related or unrelated children. They report average daily time rather than employment-specific time for mothers, so they should not be read as the number of caregiving hours performed by employed mothers alone.
Among full-time wage and salary workers in 2024, mothers of children under age 18 had median weekly earnings of $1,090, according to the BLS Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2024. This earnings measure applies to full-time wage and salary workers and is not an earnings figure for all mothers, part-time workers, or women outside the labor force.
What the measures include
The statistics above combine three U.S. sources with different populations and measurement designs. The BLS family tables use annual averages and the “own children” definition. The Census SIPP study examines work, leave, and job outcomes around a first birth and uses first-child birth cohorts. The American Time Use Survey measures average daily activities among women living with children in the household.
As a result, the figures answer related but different questions. The 74.0% labor-force participation rate describes mothers with their own children under 18 in 2024. The 65.4% rate describes mothers whose own youngest child was under 3. The 49.1% paid-leave figure describes mothers whose first child was born from 2014 to 2022. The 3.0 hours of primary childcare describes women living with children under 6 in the 2024 time-use sample. Keeping the population, geography, period, and definition attached to each statistic is essential when comparing working mothers’ employment, leave, earnings, and caregiving experiences.