Publications

Many workers will provide care for a newborn or for a family member with a serious illness and will experience the challenges of trying to manage the competing responsibilities of working and caregiving.

A briefing paper prepared by Jill E. Yavorsky, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Yue Qian, University of British Columbia, and Liana Christin Landivar, Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, for the Council on Contemporary Families symposium The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of Gender Equality.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a stressful time for American adults. Indeed, rates of clinical depression and anxiety were 300% higher in the early days of the pandemic than they were the previous year. Not only was there substantial concern and worry about the virus itself, but social measures to stem the virus spread (i.e., lockdowns; school closures) created work-family stressors for many adults, parents especially.

More dads were out of the labor force during the COVID-19 pandemic than ever before. In 2021, 15% of U.S. dads who lived with their children weren’t working, and weren’t actively searching for work – an all-time high.