Mothers’ employment transitions after the birth of a new child: longitudinal analyses using HILDA
Bob Gregory, Prem Thapa and Yu Peng
Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University
Contact Email:   Prem.Thapadewr.gov.au

This paper analyses the patterns and determinants of employment transitions of mothers following a new birth, and the effects of such transitions on several key outcomes reflecting wellbeing of the mothers and their families. A clearer understanding of the nature of the decision to enter paid employment within a short period after the birth of a child, and the consequences of these choices, is essential for better informing a wide array of labour market and social policy issues.

The current paper is based on panel data from 3 waves of HILDA (with updates expected using the full 5 waves now available prior to the Conference presentation). The distinctive feature of our study is it uses the panel data from the detailed job calendar section in HILDA to provide a continuous perspective on maternal employment dynamics after birth. The limited Australian research in this area (i.e. Baxter 2005) has been based on recall data from cross-sectional surveys and lacks a genuine longitudinal perspective.

In addition to documenting employment transitions after a new birth, we estimate probit models on mothers’ employment status 6 months and 12 months after birth. A key result is the pre-eminent role of pre-birth employment status. Among mothers not working before birth only 5% are employed 6 months after; while among mothers working 6 months before birth 57% are employed 6 months after, increasing to 69% at 12 months after birth. This major distinction underscores the additional insights that panel data can provide which are not as evident with cross-sectional data.

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