"In late 2005 and early 2006, there was a gap of 15 percentage points in the rate of participation in paid work by mothers, according to whether they lived in a family with a partner or were living as a lone parent. Around half of this gap is a reflection of it being more common for mothers in couple families to work in a job where their hours are between one and 15 per week, referred to as 'mini-jobs'. Previous research into 'mini-jobs' had identified a pattern of working in which mothers moved from not working at all, through a transitional period in a 'mini-job', to working 16 hours or more per week. One of the primary aims of this research was to consider how big a phenomenon is the use of 'mini-jobs' in moving into work of longer hours compared to other routes out of not working.

The research was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research and involved secondary analysis of the Families and Children Study survey. The analysis used data for five waves, covering the period from 2001 to 2005. FACS is a panel survey involving annual interviews which tracks families over time. It started in 1999 and is representative of families in Britain. "

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