Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - Almost every second mother with a child or children of preschool age was employed in 2021. However, in contrast to the men, the part-time quota for these women was still high. Three out of four mothers (74.9 percent) with small children who were not yet of school age were employed part-time in 2021, as the State Statistical Office announced on Tuesday. Only 9.2 percent of fathers worked part-time.
While 48 percent of mothers with small children were working in NRW in 2021, the figure was 85.9 percent for fathers. Women with preschool children worked an average of 25.1 hours per week. The weekly working time of working fathers with children under six years of age in the household was full-time at an average of 39.4 hours per week.
The employment rate among mothers increased with the age of the youngest child. Around one in eight mothers (14.3 percent) whose youngest child was less than a year old was employed in 2021. For mothers with one-year-old children, the proportion was almost three times as high at 41.6 percent. In the case of mothers with two-year-olds, 56 percent were in gainful employment.
According to the State Office for Statistics, the results are based on the microcensus. Those who were on maternity or parental leave at the time of the survey were not classified as employed. Due to methodological changes, the results for the Corona years 2020 and 2021 can only be compared to those from previous years to a limited extent, it said.
