Search Results
Briefing
The Pandemic, Child Care and Women’s Labor Force Participation
The pandemic has changed how households work, spend and care for children. In this Economic Brief, we highlight economic research that examines the patterns seen in women's work experiences in particular. We look at both the pandemic and, more generally, how shocks to the economy affect women's work decisions. Throughout, we will try to connect what we observe to households' broader economic environments and will emphasize — in the case of the pandemic — the role of away-from-home child care.
Journal Article
Q&A: Policy-Collaborative Executive Discusses Child Care’s Impact on the Arkansas Economy
Excel by Eight’s Angela Duran talks with the St. Louis Fed’s Institute for Economic Equity about Arkansas working families’ access to affordable child care.
Childcare Use and Expenses Among Families of Different Income Levels
As part of the Chicago Fed’s Spotlight on Childcare and the Labor Market, a targeted effort to understand how access to childcare can affect employment and the economy, we use data from a national survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau—the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)—to examine the childcare arrangements for young children (those under five years old) while their mothers were at work, in school, or otherwise not available and how much families paid for these arrangements in the recent past. We focus on the arrangements used and amounts paid by families with low ...
Working Paper
Parental Proximity and Earnings After Job Displacements
The earnings of young adults who live in the same neighborhoods as their parents completely recover after a job displacement, unlike the earnings of young adults who live farther away, which permanently decline. Nearby workers appear to benefit from help with childcare since grandmothers are less likely to be employed after their child's job displacement and since the earnings benefits are concentrated among young adults who have children. The result also suggests that parental employment networks improve earnings. Differences in job search durations, transfers of housing services, and ...
Journal Article
Practitioner Perspectives: Workforce Development Challenges and Opportunities in the Eighth District
Roundtables with labor force development stakeholders across the Eighth District identified housing, transportation and child care as key barriers to work.
Report
Using Worker Flows to Assess the Stability of the Early Childcare and Education Workforce, 2010-2022
Turnover is a particular problem among childcare workers and less so among preschool and kindergarten teachers. In 2022, turnover in childcare work was about 65 percent higher than in a typical job, while attrition among preschool and kindergarten teachers was on par with the typical occupation.
Journal Article
Where Are They Now? Workers with Young Children during COVID-19
Employment levels for prime-age workers have been greatly reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The decline has fallen disproportionately on females, especially compared to past recessions, and the presence of young children is a driving factor in this differential response. This article identifies the impact of gender, young children, and the presence of a spouse on the attachment to employment for individuals who were employed immediately prior to the pandemic. Compared to the Great Recession and the most recent expansionary period in 2019, women with young children have a relatively lower ...
How Is the Challenge of Finding Childcare Affecting Labor Force Participation? Perspectives from Employers Across the Seventh District
Through the Chicago Fed Survey of Economic Conditions (CFSEC) and during roundtable discussions with business, nonprofit, and government leaders, the Chicago Fed asked employers from a variety of sectors for their perspectives on how childcare access has affected labor force availability.1 These survey and roundtable findings contribute to the Chicago Fed’s Spotlight on Childcare—an effort to increase our understanding of how the lack of access to childcare impedes labor force participation in the Seventh Federal Reserve District. In this article, we summarize the responses from over 100 ...
Cedar Valley Kids: Addressing Local Childcare Needs Through Community Collaboration and Employer Partnerships
As part of the Chicago Fed’s Spotlight on Childcare and the Labor Market, we describe the Black Hawk County Child Care Coalition—a burgeoning alliance of community partners in northeast Iowa working to create a local solution for a local challenge. We also explain what went into recently launching the Cedar Valley Kids (CVK) childcare facility in Black Hawk County—the culmination of years of effort by the coalition to help address local childcare shortages in the wider six-county region.
Journal Article
COVID-19’s Ongoing Effects on Early Childhood Education in St. Louis
What are the longstanding implications of the pandemic’s impact on the child care ecosystem in St. Louis?