Effects of Underemployment and Unemployment On Material Hardship in Single-Mother Families

Background and Purpose

Multiple studies demonstrate that unemployment adversely affects various measures of adult, family, and child well-being. Although the underemployment rate is almost double the official unemployment rate, few studies have examined the individual and familial influences of underemployment, particularly in single-mother families. Examining the effects of employment hardships in these families is particularly important because single-mother families are disproportionately affected by the 1996 welfare reforms that emphasize employment and make receipt of welfare benefits contingent on workforce participation. Although a large number of single-mothers have recently entered the labor force, the jobs are frequently short-term, low-paying, and provide inadequate benefits, which can result in poverty and material hardship. This study adds to this body of research by examining relationships between underemployment and unemployment and material hardship in a national sample of single-mother families.

Method

This study used the 2004 panel of Survey of Income and Program Participation data from a sample of 2,066 single-mother families. During 20 months preceding the interview that requested information on material hardship, we measured (1) adequately employed as continuously adequately employed (worked full-time or voluntarily part-time and earned above a poverty wage), continuously employed, but made a transition into stable adequate employment, and voluntary job gaps in which the months of adequate employment exceeded the months of underemployment (reference variable); (2) underemployed as continuously underemployed (worked full-time, but earned a poverty wage or worked involuntarily part-time), transitions into stable or unstable underemployment, and voluntary job gaps in which the months of underemployment exceeded the months of adequate employment, and (3) unemployed as continuously unemployed, and experiencing any involuntary separations or job gaps. Multivariate logistic regression estimated the risk of mothers who had either of the employment problems experiencing at least one indicator of a housing, food, health, and bill paying hardship.

Results

Experiencing at least one indicator of each material hardship was common among these single-mother families; 24% experienced a housing hardship, 33% a food hardship, 38% a health hardship, and 41% a bill paying hardship. Mothers who were underemployed and unemployed, compared to adequately employed, were at greater risk of experiencing a housing hardship (OR = 2.22 and 2.72 respectively), a bill paying hardship (OR = 2.50 and 1.13, respectively), and a health hardship (OR = 3.69 and 4.50, respectively). However, only unemployment was significantly related to a food hardship (OR = 2.83).

Conclusions and Implications These results highlight the vulnerability of single-mother families to experiencing material hardship despite efforts to increase employment among this population. Because material hardship also has been associated with parent and child well-being (e.g., physical and mental health, academic performance), practitioners should assess these types of employment problems and assist families in obtaining needed public and private assistance. The results also indicate that researchers and policymakers should focus on measuring and improving both unemployment and underemployment among single mothers, such as supporting education and training, legislating higher minimum wages, and extended unemployment compensation.