Support single fathers in the workforce and workplaces

This is the fourth article in a series about Iceberg Demographics and how to manage new realities regarding inclusion in the workplace. You can read the first,second, and third article here.

Considerable media and public policy attention have been devoted to the challenges of single motherhood but much less to the challenges of single fatherhood in America. That’s because there are far more women (9.8 million) than men (4.7 million) who are sole providers for their offspring.

Because their numbers are relatively small, single male-led households with children are not a highly visible demographic in the United States. Like 90 percent of a freshwater iceberg submerged beneath the water line, single fatherhood is an iceberg demographic: Living arrangements typically are not obvious or transparent in routine interactions, especially in employment screenings and work environments.

Now more than ever, given ongoing economic turbulence and uncertainty, workforce policies and workplace accommodation are needed to help single fathers manage their dual - and often conflicting - roles as breadwinners and caretakers. In many ways, single fathers’ challenges are similar, but in other ways different from the challenges that their female counterparts face.

Inclusion: Single fathers as an Iceberg Demogrpahic

A new Census Bureau Household Trends and Outlook Plus Survey (HTOPS) provides insights into the number and characteristics of single male-headed households with children in the United States. Consistent with our Iceberg Demographic metaphor, the survey also illuminates hidden or invisible barriers and constraints these single fathers confront in their daily lived experiences.

In February 2025, according to HTOPS, close to one-third of the nation’s 127.5 million households, 41 million, had one or more children in the home. And 11 percent of the households with children - or 4.3 million - were headed or led by a single adult male.

Single fathers are a diverse group, according to February 2025 HTOPS data.

• Thirty six percent were White (1.7 million), 35 percent were Black (1.7 million), and 24 percent were Hispanic (1.1 million). Asian men (3.3 percent or 156,000) and men of other races (0.8 percent or 39,000) made up the balance.
• Ten percent had less than a high school education (494,000). The largest group - 45 percent - were high school graduates (2.1 million). One quarter had some college (1.2 million) and one-fifth had a bachelors or graduate degree (967,000). 
• Forty four percent were between the age of 18 and 34 (1.9 million), 39 percent were 35 to 49 years old (1.8 million), and 17 percent were between age 50 and 64 (730,000).
• Nearly two thirds, 63 percent or 3.0 million, were the sole caregiver for one child; 28 percent or 1.2 million were taking care of two offspring; and only a few, less than ten percent or 439,000, were primary providers for three or more children.
• Close to half had adolescent age children (46 percent or 2.2 million); 17 percent had elementary school aged children (808,000); and 16 percent had pre-school aged children (751,000). Only 2 percent were the sole caregiver for an infant (99,000). 

For the U.S. working age population, we have used the HTOPS data to demonstrate how two kinds of Iceberg Demographics, person level and household level, influence or shape the workforce and workplace experiences of existing workers, individuals not working, and women. Here we illustrate how single fathers face or confront some of the same Iceberg Demographic workforce barriers and constraints as single mothers, albeit at slightly lower frequencies in most instances.

In frequencies very similar to single mothers, as Table 1 shows, single fathers reported seeing difficulties, even when wearing glasses, hearing difficulties, even when wearing hearing aids, and mobility limitations such as difficulty walking or climbing stairs. HTOPS does not reveal the source of these physical limitations.

But research suggests that these constraints can reflect either age-related genetic maladies or the early onset of vision, hearing, and mobility issues, which may remain unaddressed because of the escalating cost of health care. These include “seeing” issues, such as dry eye disease, cataracts, and glaucoma, and mobility constraining  muscular skeletal disorders caused by auto immune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

Table 1: Percent of single headed household heads reporting physical limitations by sex, 2025  

Source: HTOPS, February 2025

Such conditions can limit the types and range of employment opportunities affected individuals can pursue.  And, consistent with our iceberg metaphor, such limitations might not be evident or visibly apparent in job search applicant screenings or routine encounters in workplaces. However, these Iceberg Demographic barriers can affect worker productivity and contribute to high rates of worker turnover, quits and terminations, unless appropriate accommodations are made. 

Challenges for single fathers

Single fathers also reported cognition issues, defined as “problems with a person’s ability to think, learn, remember, use judgement, and make decisions,” in frequencies like those of single mothers. Specifically, as Table 2 shows, among single fathers, 

• Eight percent reported difficulty understanding or being understood.
• Thirty percent divulged having problems remembering or concentrating.
• Over half (54 percent) admitted feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge.
• Almost half (49 percent) confessed to not being able to stop or control worrying.
• Forty five percent expressed little interest or pleasure in doing things.
• Forty four percent volunteered feeling down, depressed, or hopeless.
• Close to half expressed feelings of loneliness.

Some of these challenges, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms or behaviors like “excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, and substance abuses.”

Table 2: Percent of single-headed households reporting cognitive issues by sex, 2025  

Source: HTOPS, February 2025.

Household economic, housing, and transportation challenges may be partially responsible for the high frequency of cognitive issues among single fathers, which also were common at a high frequency in single-mother households.  

As Tables 2 shows, there was a loss of employment in 19 percent of single-father households in the six weeks prior to the February 2025 HTOPS, slightly higher than the frequency of job loss in single-mother households (14 percent). Close to 60 percent of single-father households had difficulty paying for usual household expenses. Because of the reported inability to pay the energy bill or to pay the full bill amount, 16 percent of single-father households kept their home at a temperature that was unsafe or unhealthy. Making matters worse, 42 percent were food insecure, that is, not getting enough food, and 10 percent reported a shortage of medications.  Notably, single mothers reported these challenges at higher frequencies, as Table 2 shows.

Table 3: Percent of single-headed households reporting economic constraints by sex, 2025  

Further complicating matters, as Table 3 shows, 13 percent of single-father households were currently behind on mortgage payments, although none were at risk of foreclosure (in contrast to 21 percent of their female counterparts who reported a significant risk of foreclosure). Thirteen percent were behind on rent payments, and 11 percent of delinquent renters were at risk of eviction, notably a much lower frequency than single-mother households (31 percent). And 28 percent divulged not having enough transportation to meet their household needs, a slightly higher frequency than single mothers (20 percent).

Table 4: Percent of single headed households reporting housing and transportation challenges by sex, 2025  

Key takeaways on single fathers in the workplace

Single fathers and their struggles are largely hidden from public view, like most of a freshwater iceberg. And their challenges are largely absent in ongoing discussions of talent recruitment, development, and management. In media and public policy circles, single fathers are overshadowed by the attention devoted to deadbeat dads and idle males who are neither in employment, education, or training (NEET). But single fathers are a crucial U.S. working age demographic, and like single mothers, deserve workforce and workplace accommodations that enable them to remain employed and in turn able to take care of their offspring.

James H. Johnson, Jr. is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of strategy and entrepreneurship in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. 

Stephen J. Appold is a Senior Research Associate in the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise’s Urban Investment Strategies Center.

Jeanne Milliken Bonds is a Professor of Practice, Impact Investing and Sustainable Finance, at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.