Almost half of working mothers in Illinois have lost jobs, hours during COVID: survey
By FOX 32 Digital Staff
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CHICAGO - A new survey of working mothers in Illinois found that nearly half of them have felt the financial crunch of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study, which surveyed over 1,000 working mothers, was conducted by the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Economic Policy Institute.
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More than half of employed mothers in Illinois worked fewer hours and lost income during the coronavirus pandemic. The survey from the Uniersity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also found workforce participation among women dropped to 57%.
SPRINGFILED, IL New research shows pandemic-related child care burdens have magnified economic inequalities for women in the workforce in Illinois.
That research was included in The Child Care Crisis in Illinois: A Survey of Working Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic, conducted by the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Economic Policy Institute nonprofit research organization.
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With the pandemic doing a number on many people’s jobs, an effect is the uncertainty of when and how much you’ll be doing your part-time job.
Researcher Lonnie Golden, a Penn State professor affiliated with the University of Illinois’ Project for Middle Class Renewal, has studied the effects of the unpredictability of having a part-time job.
“Some of these practices on-call, last-minute scheduling, irregular number of hours and shift times – not only lead to the probability of being underemployed,” Golden says, “but they can lead to some of these other well-being indicators: health, work-family conflicts, satisfaction with life generally, their current level of happiness, and specifically their satisfaction with their work schedule.”