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March 3, 2004  
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ANALYSIS SHOWS PARENTAL EMPLOYMENT DROPPED IN 2003,
INDICATING DANGERS OF NEW CONGRESSIONAL WELFARE PROPOSAL

Washington, DC - The percentage of American parents who are working dropped in 2003 for the third straight year, wiping out much of the past progress made in moving single mothers from welfare to work, according to new findings released today by the Children's Defense Fund.

In Congress this week, Chairman Wally Herger (R-CA) of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources proposed requiring that more families on welfare must work—even when there are no jobs. This plan would effectively squeeze already tight state budgets and could penalize jobless families for failing to meet the more stringent work requirements.

For example, CDF noted in Pennsylvania, Congressman Herger's plan would require the state to increase the number of families on welfare who are working by 370 percent, even though the state's number of single parents without employment has risen by nearly 30,000 (26 percent) since 2000. The plan does not provide the additional federal funding needed to help meet these goals despite the current budget shortfall facing Pennsylvania.

"The economy hasn't even created enough jobs to keep up with normal population growth, for parents or anyone else; so the number without jobs is rising," said Deborah Cutler Ortiz, CDF's Family Income Director. "The sharper employment losses for single mothers are particularly troubling because these families don't have the public safety net they used to have. And now Congress is poised to exacerbate the problem by making welfare-to-work rules even stricter. It doesn't make sense."

A monthly average of 3 million single mothers (with children under 18) had no work in 2003, said CDF, up from 2.6 million in 2000. Although the percentage of single mothers with jobs rose by 11 percentage points in the late 1990s, the last three years wiped out nearly one-third of their employment progress. Specifically:

  • 61.7 percent of single mothers were employed in 1995.
  • 73.0 percent of single mothers were employed in 2000, a five-year rise of 11.3 percentage points.
  • 72.4 percent of single mothers were employed in 2001.
  • 71.5 percent of single mothers were employed in 2002.
  • 69.7 percent of single mothers were employed in 2003, a three-year decline of 3.3 percentage points.

Employment plunged even more sharply among recent public assistance recipients. Among parents receiving recent welfare payments, the percentage of those working dropped from 37.8 percent in March 2000 to 29.6 percent in March 2003. This decline wiped out most of the 15.2-percentage-point gain in employment made in the five years after March 1995. The findings raise troubling questions about what happens to these jobless families. Other studies by CDF, the Urban Institute, and other policy experts have found a recent surge in deeply impoverished single-parent families with no work and no welfare.

For parents overall, there was a 2-percent decline in overall employment during the last three years, eliminating most of the gain posted by all parents during the boom years of 1995-2000, when their likelihood of being employed rose by 3 percentage points. For all of America's parents (with children under 18), a monthly average of nearly 15 million had no work in 2003.

The parental employment figures refer to parents living with children (including biological, step- or adopted) under 18. The new preliminary figures were calculated by CDF from a monthly government survey of households. The figures are expected to closely match official parental employment estimates due out from the Labor Department later this year based on the same data.

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The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick, into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations. We have never taken government funds.

 

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