Millions of Workers Stay Home to Watch Young Children as Daycares Struggle

[dalton99a]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/millions-of-workers-stay-home-to-watch-young-children-as-daycares-struggle-11635087600

Millions of Workers Stay Home to Watch Young Children as Daycares Struggle
The fallout from more than 100,000 missing child-care workers is stymieing company efforts to hire and sidelining some women’s careers
By Kathryn Dill
Oct. 24, 2021 11:00 am ET

Children across the U.S. have returned to school in person and many daycare centers have reopened with vaccinated staffers. Still, a shortage of child-care workers is sending ripples across the U.S. workforce, stymieing employers as they try to hire more workers and sidelining the careers of women who would otherwise opt to remain in the labor force.

Household survey data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau shows more than seven million adults had to make adjustments in the past four weeks when children under age 5 were unable to attend daycare due to safety concerns, consistent with recent months.

Experts say the shaky child-care situation is contributing to the lowest labor-force participation rates among women in the U.S. since the 1970s. In September, more than 300,000 women ages 20 and over dropped out of the workforce, according to an analysis of government data by the National Women’s Law Center.

More than 100,000 child-care providers experienced closures early in the pandemic, according to a 2020 survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Since then, one in 10 child-care jobs hasn’t returned. A recent survey by NAEYC found that 80% of child-care centers surveyed were experiencing staffing shortages, and half of affected centers are serving fewer children.

[Wingus Dingus]

1. Low pay, high responsibility, high liability exposure.

Would not be a child care worker.

[malletgirl02]

3. Add no respect

Both child care workers and elder care workers get little if any respect.

[Wingus Dingus]

4. True. I was a nurse aide in a nursing home.

I was well aware that the work I did was absolutely necessary and yet totally shit-upon.

[underpants]

2. I've wondered how many you died were daycare for family or neighbors

Older people very often fill that role. Between the dead and longhaulers and people with serious adverse results of getting sick.

I have to say that not paying daycare probably added 500 sq. Feet to the house we could buy.

[GoodRaisin]

5. Don't have the WSJ so can't read the article.

But I would be willing to bet it doesn’t mention low pay or poor treatment of childcare workers.

[MichMan]

6. Pay them $25 per hr with pensions & full benefits and the problem goes away

People will just have to get used to paying more.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Unfortunately, that pay would be far more than most parents

can afford.

[pinkstarburst]

8. Okay but if you are a single mom

of 3 kids and you make 15 per hour, and you need to put 3 kids in daycare, how exactly do you make that work when the daycare hikes the rates up to what they will now have to charge in order to pay every worker $25 per hour?