The ABS has surveyed discouraged job seekers since 2015, so we now have a decade of data on why people are not looking for work.

Overall childcare saw a big jump in the reason – up from 14% of the reason to 20% (this for both men and women)

Not surprisingly the biggest reasons for not looking for work due to caring for children is the cost of childcare. The good news is this is issue is much less of a concern than it used to be. In 2015,8.5% of people said the reason they were not looking for work was the cost of child care meant they had to stay home and take care of their child(ren); now it is just 5.7% of all people.

The problem though is that is a jump from 4% last year.

But that is not the only reason for the increase in child care being the reason that people are not looking for work. Last year, 4% of people said they were not looking for work because they preferred to stay home and care for their children (ie they chose not to send them to daycare); this year that rose to 5.6%.