Strong Economy, Secure Employment: Parents Made Gains in 2017 Data

It took 10 years — more than one-fifth of many people’s work­ing lives — but the per­cent­age of chil­dren whose par­ents lack secure employ­ment has final­ly fall­en back to pre­re­ces­sion lev­els nation­al­ly. It’s also true in most, but not all, states.

In 2017, 27% of all chil­dren in the Unit­ed States — more than 20 mil­lion kids — were liv­ing in fam­i­lies where no par­ent had reg­u­lar, full-time employ­ment. This rate is the same as it was in 2008, the start of the Great Reces­sion. After peak­ing in 2010, the per­cent­age has fall­en grad­u­al­ly since — but nev­er more than one point per year.

In 18 states, the Dis­trict of Colum­bia and Puer­to Rico, the 2017 rate remains high­er than the 2008 rate, but the dif­fer­ence is greater than two per­cent­age points in only four places:

• In New Hamp­shire, 25% of kids had no par­ent secure­ly employed in 2017 ver­sus just 21% in 2008.
  
  
• In New Mex­i­co, 36% of kids had no par­ent secure­ly employed in 2017 ver­sus just 30% in 2008.
  
  
• In West Vir­ginia, 37% of kids had no par­ent secure­ly employed in 2017 ver­sus 32% in 2008.
  
  
• In Puer­to Rico, this rate remains stub­born­ly high: 56% of kids had no par­ent secure­ly employed in 2017 ver­sus just 51% in 2008. Inter­est­ing­ly, the total num­ber of chil­dren who fit this sta­tis­tic fell by 131,000 kids over this same time span. As data become avail­able in the wake of 2017’s Hur­ri­cane Maria, the island’s shrink­ing child pop­u­la­tion — and the eco­nom­ic well-being of those who remain — will be impor­tant fac­tors to watch.