Mothers' labour market entry after childbirth: the role of pre-pregnancy job characteristics and socio-demographic factors

Absztrakt

In Hungary, women often take advantage of maternity and child-raising allowances and, according to social norms, typically stay at home for a relatively long time after giving birth. However, little is known about the factors that influence the length of career breaks. This study examines the impact of labour market characteristics and other socio-demographic factors prior to childbirth on mothers’ labour market participation during the first 40 months after giving birth. The descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses are based on the first five waves of the longitudinal panel study ‘Cohort ‘18 Growing Up in Hungary.’ The survey started in 2018, and the participating women were interviewed five times between pregnancy and their child’s fifth birthday. We analyse the postnatal employment of 6,800 mothers.
The results show that although a significant proportion of mothers continue to be primary caregivers after childbirth, the rate of postnatal employment has somewhat increased compared to previous decades. Controlling for various factors, including the number of children, the analysis reveals that approximately 90% of mothers are not employed during the first year and a half following childbirth. This proportion declines to 77% once the child reaches the age of two. After the age of three, 43% of mothers are employed, and this proportion does not reach 50% by the time the child is 40 months old.
Using Cox proportional hazards models, we also find that stronger labour market attachment and key background factors – such as birth order, additional children, income, and relationship stability– play a more important role in returning to work than job-specific characteristics such as sector, contract type or form of employment. Mothers who were employed in the seventh month of pregnancy showed a particularly early return to work. In addition, our study identifies a group of around 8% of mothers who had never worked before becoming pregnant, for whom childbearing further restricts their future employment and financial opportunities.