Over the last twenty years there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of lone mothers employed part-time, while the proportion employed full-time is much the same in 2002 as it was in 1983. The experience of couple mothers is quite different, with both full-time and part-time employment increasing at similar rates. This paper uses data from the 1986 and 1996 Censuses to explore the possible reasons for the differences in the labour market trends of lone and couple mothers.