Having a family and your working life

People are living longer so governments are looking for ways to encourage people to work for longer. In the UK, the State Pension age is being raised and future generations will have little choice but to work. But how will the decisions they made earlier in life - whether and when to have a family - affect their later employment prospects? In the latest ICLS WorkLife blog, Mai Stafford discusses findings from research which show that flexible working including part-time jobs are likely to be key in helping parents to combine work and family.

The research made use of data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD) which has followed the lives of more than 5,000 people born within a single week in 1946. It shows  that women who had children later were more likely to work full-time at age 60-64, whilst earlier motherhood was associated with lower likelihood of work at age 60-64 among those who did not return to work before age 51.

The research was part of UCL's  RenewL project looking at extended working lives.