Fathers are taking out more parental leave, shows the Insurance Agency's annual report on household economics. At the same time, mothers' take-up of unpaid leave is decreasing.
"In this year's report, we can see that fathers' share of both days with parental benefit and total leave, including unpaid days, has increased for children born in 2021," says Trude Warner, analyst at the Insurance Agency, in a press release.
The report focuses on the period when the largest take-up of parental benefit occurs, which is until the child turns two years old. It shows that for children born in 2021, fathers took out 27 per cent of the days, which is an increase of seven percentage points compared to children born in 2010.
"Mothers' take-up of unpaid leave has previously increased as their paid leave decreased. Now, mothers' unpaid leave is decreasing for the first time since we started measuring about 10 years ago. This could be due to the deteriorating economic situation," says Trude Warner.
The increase in the new report stands out. Mothers' share of both unpaid and paid parental leave is still significantly larger than fathers', and the distribution has hardly changed in recent years, according to the Insurance Agency.
