Figure 3. Employment around births, women with three or more children
Characteristic All Race/ethnicity Education Percentage of years in full-time employment
Black non-Hispanic White non-Hispanic Hispanic Less than high school diploma High school graduate, no college Some college or associate's degree Bachelor's degree or higher 0 to 25 percent More than 25 percent to 50 percent More than 50 percent to 75 percent More than 75 percent

First birth

 

Percent employed 2nd year before first birth

34.36 7.08 42.37 17.29 5.11 28.30 38.49 62.09 43.27 63.14 64.47 62.47

Percent employed 1st year before first birth

28.02 8.02 34.02 14.27 4.08 22.67 28.27 55.07 41.09 63.50 62.89 64.52

Percent employed 1st year after first birth

11.65 5.71 13.30 8.83 1.15 8.87 13.06 22.67 21.21 36.64 49.35 68.78

Percent employed 2nd year after first birth

17.34 9.85 19.54 12.69 2.00 14.63 20.58 29.91 24.87 43.54 58.30 69.62

Second birth

 

Percent employed 2nd year before second birth

23.06 14.34 25.66 17.25 8.44 21.53 25.53 34.05 32.54 57.80 68.88 83.76

Percent employed 1st year before second birth

21.45 15.84 22.74 21.22 3.53 19.20 27.38 32.09 28.18 49.54 64.22 83.35

Percent employed 1st year after second birth

13.08 10.12 13.51 15.21 3.54 11.85 15.89 19.19 14.84 27.96 60.82 79.51

Percent employed 2nd year after second birth

19.31 18.54 19.02 23.61 6.43 16.20 29.42 22.41 19.15 45.74 66.96 80.39

Third birth

 

Percent employed 2nd year before third birth

25.86 22.49 26.24 29.36 10.34 26.34 36.05 25.23 27.23 48.75 77.07 90.42

Percent employed 1st year before third birth

22.13 22.22 21.88 24.22 7.75 21.79 30.96 23.51 20.75 46.95 77.23 86.53

Percent employed 1st year after third birth

16.53 19.55 15.74 17.56 6.24 15.59 25.63 15.32 16.02 37.73 67.36 88.19

Percent employed 2nd years after third birth

24.05 27.36 23.24 24.16 8.13 23.35 31.93 28.36 20.75 44.66 74.65 93.87

Note: The sample is weighted and consists of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 female respondents born in the years 1957–64. Race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity are mutually exclusive categories. For simplicity, non-Black non-Hispanics are referred to as White non-Hispanics. Educational attainment is as of the most recent survey. Full-time employment is defined as working at least 1,750 hours in a given year.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.