Part-time jobs have fallen sharply, writes Mandy Richards from Global Sisters, and that matters for solo mums.
When Thursday’s jobs figures came out, headlines focused on unemployment hitting 4.7 per cent, the highest since 2021, and what it means for interest rates.
But look a little closer and there’s a different story. The fall was all in part-time work. 73,700 part-time jobs went in September, the worst month in five years, while full-time jobs rose by 34,400.
For many people, that’s little more than a footnote, but for solo mums in particular, it shows what’s being lost.
Part-time work isn’t a lifestyle choice when you’re raising kids on your own. It’s the only work that fits. It’s the job you can do between school drop-off and pick-up, the one that lets you take a sick kid to the doctor without losing your shift. When those jobs disappear, you lose a partner’s income to fall back on. The first thing at risk is the rent.
I know what that looks like. When my parents separated, my mum became a solo mum in a small country town with few jobs. That experience is a big part of why I started Global Sisters.
Ten years on, we’ve supported over 11,000 women across Australia to start and grow their own small businesses. Many of them are solo mums. Many are rebuilding after family violence. They all tell us the same thing: they’re doing everything they can, and still can’t get ahead.
The numbers back them up. When we surveyed 1,000 women in our community this year, one in eight were already spending more than 70 per cent of their income on housing. Anglicare’s 2026 Rental Affordability Snapshot found that in Sydney, no affordable rental exists for a solo mum on Parenting Payment. Not one. For women, the housing crisis isn’t a squeeze. It’s a locked door. And new research from ACOSS and UNSW for Anti-Poverty Week found 71 per cent of people in households relying on Parenting Payment are living in poverty.
None of the women we work with wants to be on income support. They are trapped by their circumstances, and by a system that was never designed for women, particularly solo mums.
Here’s why the job losses hit so hard.
Parenting Payment is meant to be a bridge to work, but the clock is always running. Once her youngest turns six, a solo mum has to meet mutual obligation requirements to keep it. Above a small free amount, every dollar she earns cuts her payment by 40 cents. And when her youngest turns 14, the payment ends. The system expects her to work, and for most solo mums, part-time work is the only option that fits. That’s the door that just closed.
That’s where self-employment comes in. It gives women the flexibility to earn an income around their circumstances, not despite them. Running a business is freaking hard for anyone, but it’s possible with the right support. Our three-year Solo Mums project supports mums on Parenting Payment to build their own businesses, and the evidence is clear: with the right support, it takes 18 months to three years.
That’s longer than the system allows for, and it’s not for lack of effort. These women put at least 15 hours a week into their businesses while raising their kids alone, often alongside other work. Even so, most women in our project had to put their businesses on hold at some point, losing about five months on average. The reasons were escalating violence after separation, legal systems used against them, housing that fell through, and the relentless load of solo parenting. None of it was in their control, and the system makes no allowance for any of it.
So the clock runs out before the business is ready, and she’s left competing for part-time jobs that have just been cut, the only work she can take. That’s exactly why this week’s figures matter. When the part-time job goes, the business might be the only income left standing.
I think of Jess, a First Nations woman, solo mum of four and survivor of family violence who has faced housing insecurity. “How can a single mum with 4 children, no support network, no backing and no one believing in her start a business?” she asked.
With our support, Jess now runs Heart Brew Cafe, a community-centred coffee van business. We recently awarded her a $10,000 scholarship to help grow it. Her story shows why asking women to earn their own income isn’t enough. They need safety, practical support and access to funding to make it possible.
“Hopefully this change is generational,” Jess says. “I’m showing my kids that anyone can run a business.”
So what needs to change?
First, we need to treat secure housing as the foundation for everything else. You can’t build an income without a stable home, and you can’t secure a home without an income. You can’t build a business, or a future for your kids, if you don’t know where you’ll be living in six months.
Second, our welfare system needs to recognise self-employment as a genuine pathway, and actively support it as much as it supports job-seeking. That means timelines based on evidence, not wishful thinking.
Third, women need access to seed funding and finance for micro businesses. Most of the women we work with would never get a business loan from a bank.
The women in our community have more grit than anyone I know. They don’t need inspiration. They need a system that stops working against them.
If you want to understand what that system feels like from the inside, listen to Locked Out, our new podcast about why so many Australian women can’t find a secure place to live. Their stories say it better than any statistic.
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