This proportion for those caring for over 50 hours a week is 31 per cent. Diagram 5 Percentage of carers where the person being cared for is receiving services. The total number of carers in Britain is changing. Social trends may affect the supply of care. Increased participation of women in the labour market might be thought to result in a reduction in the supply of people able to care.
More women now work full-time.
Across all age groups, women are less likely to be a carer if they are in paid work. On the other hand, a considerable prop ortion of carers are in paid employment and more people may find they are able, because of improved flexibilities in their working conditions, to combine employment with their caring responsibilities. There are other social trends which could have an effect on the extent of caring in future. In particular, the growth in the number of lone parents, changes in patterns of marriage, the increase in the number of people living alone, and increased mobility among family members, may mean that people will be less likely in future to be part of the sort of relationships which can result in informal caring when someone becomes sick, disabled, vulnerable or frail. In the past, older women were substantially more likely than older men to be living alone.