The Care Board’s Labor Force Participation Tracker provides monthly updates on how mothers of young children are engaging in the workforce. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), the tracker highlights monthly, six-month, and annual changes in the labor force participation rate (LFPR) for women aged 25 to 44 living with children under age 5. To explore more data on the care economy, visit thecareboard.org.

The Labor Force Participation trend view shows monthly labor force participation for both mothers and fathers living with children under 5 since 1989. While fathers’ participation has remained consistently above 95% for decades (with the exception of pandemic times), mothers’ rates have been more variable.

This tracker and trend view isolates labor force trends for parents of young children, filling a gap in standard labor market reporting. Check back each month for new data.

Five Facts About Moms of Young Children in the Economy

1. Labor force participation among mothers of young children has risen nearly 10 percentage points since 1989. In January 1989, just 58.9% of mothers aged 25 to 44 with children under 5 were in the labor force. The series reached a high of 71.2% in August 2023.
2. In 2025, mothers experienced the sharpest January to June decline in more than 40 years of data, with labor force participation falling 2.8 percentage points in six months.
3. Mothers of young children are more likely than other prime-age adults to report teleworking, with 32% working remotely in 2025 compared with 28% of women without children and 20% of men without children. With return-to-office mandates on the rise, these policies may disproportionately affect mothers of young children.
4. Moms with children under 5 are most likely to report childcare problems as the main reason for being out of the labor force, working part-time rather than full-time, or missing work the previous week compared to fathers of children under 5, fathers of children under 18, and mothers of children under 18.
5. The gap between mothers’ and fathers’ labor force participation has narrowed considerably since 1989, reaching a historic low in October 2022. But from January through June of 2025, the gap widened.