Demographic change and labor-based income provision in Mexican urban households, 2005 and 2017

Abstract

This article analyzes how labor-based income provision in Mexican urban family households has changed between 2005 and 2017. It specifically considers how many household members work to provide an income, which members collaborate, and how this dynamic relates to transformations in the population’s age structure. The analysis uses data from the second trimester of Mexico’s National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE) for each year analyzed. Our main results show that the number of income earners per household has increased, especially among couples without children. Although the head of the household continues to be a key economic provider, households in which female spouses contribute to income support have increased substantially. In both 2005 and 2017, children and other household members were more involved in income provision when living in single-parent households with children and in extended family households.