Working Parents in 2025: 91.6% of Families With Kids Have an Employed Parent
- In 2025, 5.7% of the nation’s 85.9 million families included an unemployed person, up from 5.3%.
- At least one parent was employed in 91.6% of the 32.9 million families with children.
- In 66.3% of married-couple families with children, both parents worked.
Each year BLS looks at work and unemployment by family rather than by individual. The 2025 report (BLS Employment Characteristics of Families, 2025) shows how many households depend on two paychecks.
Families and unemployment
The number of families with at least one unemployed member rose by 367,000 to 4.9 million in 2025. The share was 5% for married-couple families, 9% for families maintained by women and 8% for families maintained by men. Of the 85.9 million families, 79.8% had at least one employed member, down 0.3 percentage point.
Families with children
| Measure, 2025 | Share |
|---|---|
| At least one parent employed (all families with children) | 91.6% |
| Married couples with children: at least one parent employed | 97.4% |
| Married couples with children: both parents employed | 66.3% |
| Families maintained by fathers: father employed | 86.6% |
| Families maintained by mothers: mother employed | 75.6% |
Parents in the labor force
The labor force participation rate was 73.9% for mothers with children under 18 and 93.7% for fathers. Married mothers participated at 72.1% and married fathers at 94.4%. Mothers and fathers with other marital statuses participated at 78.1% and 89.8%.
Among all married-couple families, both spouses were employed in 49.1%, and only one spouse in 23.4%. BLS notes that 2025 figures are 11-month averages because October 2025 data weren’t collected during the federal government shutdown.
What it means for your career
- With two earners in most married families with kids, schedule flexibility can be worth negotiating alongside pay.
- If one partner is between jobs, the other’s benefits often cover the household, so compare family coverage costs when weighing offers.
- Single parents carry more risk: families maintained by women with an unemployed member were less likely (56.0%) to also have someone working.
Published October 27, 2026. Sources are linked in the text.
Header image: original graphic by JobPayRaise.com.
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Parenthood and pay: in 2024, fathers of children under 18 working full time had median weekly earnings of $1,469, versus $1,179 for men without children; mothers earned $1,090, versus $1,022 for women without children. Source: BLS Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2024.