article_snippet: Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed 74.1 per cent of mothers with children under 16, or between 16 and 18 if children are still at school, are regarded as ‘participating in the labour market’.
article_snippet: The gap has closed because there are now half a million more women with children under five in work, or looking for jobs, than in 1996.
article_snippet: There are also 200,000 more women with children aged between five and ten in the labour market.
article_snippet: Chancellor George Osborne said in Chancellor George Osborne Budget speech on Wednesday that a key element of the Government’s ‘massive moment’ in job creation, giving Britain Britain highest-ever employment rate, was ‘more women in work than ever before’.
article_snippet: But critics of the Government’s drive for more mothers to go out to work
article_snippet: Author and family commentator Jill Kirby said The latest figures were a result of government efforts to persuade mothers that ‘children are better off in childcare’, adding: ‘Children are losing out –
article_snippet: a string of different childcare workers is no substitute for the love of a mother.
article_snippet: ’ Imogen Thompson, of the pressure group Mothers at Home Matter, said:
article_snippet: We question whether this is what all women want, or whether many are forced into returning to the labour market before all women feel all women, or all women children, are ready.
article_snippet: The new estimates are based on the large-scale Labour Force Survey covering women who either have jobs or are unemployed and looking for work.
article_snippet: The biggest change has been among mothers of children under five.
article_snippet: In 1996, 1.6million of them were in the labour market, compared with 2.1million last year.
article_snippet: This represents a rise from 54.5 per cent of mothers of under-fives in work in 1996 to 65 per cent now.
article_snippet: More mothers of older children are also working, but the rise has been much less steep, while the rates for women without dependents have not changed in nearly 20 years.
article_snippet: The most popular jobs for women are either in teaching and education, or ‘caring personal services’, including medical work, or in shops.
highlights_snippet: Around 74% of mothers with children under 16 are 'in the labour market'
  