The employment rate for lone parents rose slightly to 55.5% last autumn, up from 0.1% the previous year and up 5.3% from five years earlier, the ONS Labour Force Survey showed.
In comparison, the employment rate for married and cohabiting mothers was 71.4%, up 0.4% from the previous year and up 0.2% from five years earlier.
Overall there were 2.99 million unemployed households in autumn 2005. This represented 15.9% of all working-age households, up 0.1% from the previous year and down 0.7% from five years earlier.
There were 4.24 million working-age people living in workless households. This represented 11.6% of the working-age population, up 0.2% from the previous year and down 0.4% from five years earlier.
