3.01 million workless households in the UK in spring 2004

Labour Force Survey estimates for spring 2004 show that the proportion of children living in working-age households with no adult in work was 16.1 per cent, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous year and down 1.9 percentage points from five years earlier.

There were 1.86 million children living in workless households, down 31,000 (1.7 per cent) from the previous year and down 296,000 (13.7 per cent) from five years earlier.

Of the 1.86 million children living in workless households, 69.3 per cent were in lone parent households, with 28.8 per cent in couple households and 1.9 per cent in other types of household.

Looking at worklessness rates for different types of household, about half (49.3 per cent) of all children living in lone parent households were in workless households, compared with 6.1 per cent of children in couple households and 13.7 per cent of those in other types of household.

The downward trend in worklessness rates was more marked for children living in lone parent households (down 6.1 percentage points from spring 1999 to spring 2004) than for those in couple households (down 1.3 percentage points from spring 1999 to spring 2004).

Worklessness rates varied by region, with children resident in London being the most likely to live in a workless household (25.7 per cent) and those in the South East (excluding London) being the least likely to live in a workless household (10.0 per cent). Children resident in Inner London were nearly twice as likely to live in a workless household as those in Outer London (36.2 per cent and 19.0 per cent respectively).

There were 3.01 million workless households in spring 2004 (16.1 per cent of all working-age households, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous year and down 1.3 percentage points from five years earlier).

There were 4.25 million working-age people living in workless households (11.7 per cent of the working-age population, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous year and down 0.9 percentage points from five years earlier).