The Economic Journal· 2026Q1
Motherhood and Constraints during Job Search
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Motherhood reduces job search activity by 12.2% and job finding probability by 11.7% due to childcare constraints, particularly outside school hours.
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Key points
- Mothers have an 11.7% lower probability of finding a job after job loss compared to childless women.
- Mothers send 12.2% fewer job applications than similar childless women.
- Mothers' job application rates decrease by approximately 20.5% during non-school hours.
- A reform introducing Wednesday schooling increased mothers' applications on that day, suggesting timing constraints.
- Childcare constraints appear to reduce the return-to-search, impacting job finding and application rates.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract Why do women’s labour earnings drop upon motherhood? We shed new light on this question by analysing the changes in job search behaviour associated with motherhood. We exploit data on the job applications sent on a popular online platform linked with administrative registers for 350,000 involuntarily unemployed workers in France. After losing their job, mothers have a 11.7% lower probability to find a job than similar women without children and send 12.2% fewer job applications. To explore the underlying mechanisms, we analyse the timing of job applications. Unlike other women, mothers’ rate of applications decreases by about 20.5% in the hours when there is no school. Moreover, the French reform that introduced school on Wednesday in 2014 led mothers to send more applications on Wednesdays. Our results highlight that childcare creates constraints on the timing of job search activities for mothers. We finally provide suggestive evidence that these constraints decrease their return-to-search, and thereby contribute to their lower application and job finding rates.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. The Economic Journal, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Gender Studies
Gender StudiesSocial Sciences