Since COVID, how single moms are faring - juggling work/childcare - has been a major area of concern. I've been looking at the data available via StatsCan but have hesitated sharing because it never felt quite right. Here's a thread on what I've uncovered #cdnecon #abpoli

When we look at how single moms in Alberta are faring based on their jobs recovery, things look really concerning, especially for women with very young children.

When we instead look at changes in things like the rate of employment (# employed/# who are employed or searching for work) or the % who are a part of the labour force since COVID, the picture looks surprisingly rosy for moms with very young children.

How can that be? The data show there has been a steep decline in the # of inds in this group. Why? StatsCan says one issue is fewer inds are taking the survey. But why has this group been impacted more? My guess: limited time/energy to fill out a survey.

This is a MAJOR problem. StatsCan confirmed these groups "represent an area of analysis that will not produce high quality results" and found this issue to be true across provinces, meaning national estimates are also flawed.

This means we DO NOT KNOW how single women in Canada are doing in terms of work. We need better data, now. This is an opportunity to go beyond the traditional survey strategies/process to get a fuller, more real-time picture of this group.