THE INFLUENCE OF THE QUALITY AND AVAILABILITY OF CHILDCARE ON MOTHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN THE LABOUR FORCE

Abstract

Childcare became crucial issues that will affect the participation of female in the labour force. Furthermore, the number of female in labour force is below the target will indirectly harm the nation economic by lose the expertise and skill workers. Mothers’ who are working, usually facing the problem to find the childcare that meet their satisfaction. They were worried about the safety, the hygiene and some issues that related to the quality of the childcare. In addition, the availability of childcare also became the reasons why mothers withdraw from labour market. They had difficulty to access the suitable childcare that meet their preferences such as mothers had difference time of working hour compared to the normal working hours. Hence, the main objectives of this study is to identify how the quality and availability of childcare may influence the mothers’ decision to involve in labour market force. This study used quantitative research method that relies on the use of numerical system. The respondent of this study was mothers with at least have one child either they are working or not. There were 510 of respondents that had been answered the survey and the result had been analyzed by using Statistical package for the Social Science (SPSS) for the logistic regression. The result of this study showed that there was significant relationship between the quality and availability of childcare with mothers labour force participation in labour force.