4125.0 - Gender Indicators, Australia, Jul 2012  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 27/07/2012   
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This document was added or updated on 29/08/2012.

MEDIA RELEASE
29 August 2012
Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra time)
127/2012
Father’s Day 2012: Not all jobs and play for dads - there's chores too!

Dads are still finding time for their kids, statistics from the ABS show.

More than 90% of dads with kids under 15 years living with them had jobs in 2010-11; and most of these dads worked full-time. Dads employed full-time worked in their jobs for about 42 hours per week on average.

But dads were also busy after work, with 46% of dads with kids aged up to 17 years volunteering time to help an organisation or group, with 59% of the volunteers helping with sporting or other physical recreation activities. Of the volunteering dads, 39% gave time at least once a week, and a further 18% did so at least once a month.

Dads spent almost four hours a day caring for children in 2006. Dads also work around the house, with those with full time jobs in 2006 spending around 80 minutes a day on domestic work, dads with part-time jobs worked for over two hours a day around the house, and dads not employed spent three hours per day on domestics activities.

39% of employed men provided care to someone in the week prior to interview in 2007, and 86% of those men were providing care to their own or step child. Just over half (54%) of the employed men providing care felt that their work and family responsibilities were in balance in 2007, with only 16% feeling they were rarely or never in balance.

Of the 366,000 dads who had children living elsewhere with another parent in 2009-10, 22% had their child stay overnight with them at least once a week and a further 27% had their child stay overnight with them at least once a month.

Dads are also getting older – for babies born in 2010, the median age of their dads was just over 33 years, compared to just under 31 years in 1990.

For more information about fathers see the ABS online products: Gender Indicators, Australia (cat. no. 4125.0), Voluntary Work, Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4441.0), How Australians Use Their Time, 2006 (cat. no. 4153.0), Family Characteristics, Australia 2009-10 (cat. no. 4442.0), and Births, Australia (cat. no. 3301.0).