Change Indicator

Families with children and no employed parent in Connecticut

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Why This Indicator Matters

Secure parental employment ensures consistent family income, and is associated with greater access to health insurance. Family income correlates with child health, educational attainment, and socio-emotional development.[i] Children living in poverty are less likely to have a parent working full-time, year-round.[ii] Children living in families headed by a single householder naturally are more likely to be living in families with no employed parent than their peers living in two-parent households. This disparity is reflected in Figure 5 below; families with children living in single female headed-households are those most likely to have no employed parent. However, this indicator only offers a partial view of the state of parental employment in Connecticut, as it does not distinguish between part-time and full-time work, and further does not offer information on the number of families with children where working parents are still living below or near the Federal Poverty Level.



 

[i] Berger, Lawrence M., Christina Paxson, and Jane Waldfogel. "Income and Child Development." Children and Youth Services Review 31, no. 9 (2009): 978-89

 

[ii] Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. (2017). America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being. 2017. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

 

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Definition and Source

PROVIDER

Definition

This indicator reports the number and percentage of families with related children with no employed parent. This includes married-couple and single-parent families and includes those who are not in the labor force and those who are unemployed. Please note this indicator reports number of families with related children with no employed parent, not number of children with no employed parent. 

The total number of families with children with no employed parent is summed from the totals for families with children, across the family types described above. These totals are divided by the total number of families with related children to calculate the percentage of families with children and no employed parent. 
The indicator "Families with Children and No Employed Parent" includes married-couple families where both the husband and wife are unemployed; married-couple families where the husband is unemployed and the wife is not in the labor force; married-couple families where the husband is not in the labor force and the wife is unemployed; married-couple families where both the husband and wife are not in the labor force; male householder families with no wife present where the householder is unemployed; male householder families with no wife present where the householder is not in the labor force; female householder families with no husband present where the householder is unemployed; and female householder families with no husband present where the householder is not in the labor force.

As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, the population 16 years and older is divided into two categories: in the labor force or not in the labor force. People who have never worked or who are retired are not in the labor force. People who are not currently working but have recently and would like to work are considered in the labor force, but unemployed.

Data Source

U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates 2005-2009, 2007-2011, 2009-2013, 2011-2015, 2013-2017, 2015-2019, 2016-2020, and 2017-2021. Table B23007.

Notes

Counts of five or fewer – excluding zero – are suppressed, as are percentages derived from suppressed counts.

NA: Not Available S: Data Suppressed



 

Last Updated

December 2023