The charity
Gingerbread carried out a literature review of existing evidence into single parents’ work aspirations and employability, a survey of 1,000 single parents, and held focus groups and interviews with single parents and employers.
Of the survey respondents, 59 per cent were employed, 75 per cent aimed to be in work within the next three years, and most of the remainder of single parents were either long-term disabled or caring for a child with disabilities.
While the majority of single parents wanted to work in order to provide for their family, be a good role model for their child, as well as feel challenged and stimulated by their job, researchers found that this ambition is often stifled by a lack of flexible jobs and unaffordable and unavailable childcare.
The report, ‘The only way is up? The employment aspirations of single parents’, reveals that more two-thirds of single parents have taken lower-skilled occupations that are typically low paid.
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