Child Care is Everyone's Business

April 11, 2022

Let me share some data with you. More than 2.3 million women have left the labor force in the United States since February 2020, putting the women’s workforce participation rate at 57 percent—the lowest it’s been since 1988. The female labor force in Delaware specifically has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. Building on that, families in Delaware pay an average of $20,000 in child care per child per year. To finish the picture I’m painting for you, there is a maximum licensed capacity of 35,481 across the Delaware child care industry but a total of 54,261 children under the age of five. In 2020 alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Delaware saw 10,392 births.

It’s long been a struggle for working parents to find access to the affordable and quality child care that enables them to participate in the workforce. It’s something employers have dealt with well before the pandemic, but the numbers are more alarming now than ever. Families are losing access and facing long waiting lists. Providers are struggling to survive. Our state’s youngest citizens are caught in the middle.

Yet this problem is two-fold. We cannot forget that child care providers are also business owners and nonprofit leaders. They have their own operating costs and are faced with paying competitive wages. Providers are not exempt from the staffing shortages we are all experiencing.

So the question is, “What do we do?”

We must first recognize that child care is a valuable and integral component of a strong and vibrant economy. Child care is important to recruiting and retaining a competitive workforce. And decades of research show that high-quality early learning experiences can generate huge returns on investment for Delaware’s economy.

We at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Rodel, and the Delaware Department of Education, are engaged in discussions that could lead to the reimagining of child care in the First State. Last week, the Fed released a report and toolkit that summarize what we’ve heard from business and community leaders up and down the state through focus groups and survey responses. With the proper knowledge and resources, we can lead in solutions to meet the needs of our workforce, today and tomorrow.

Read the report

Join us on 5/3 for a webinar on the toolkit

Uniquely Delaware

The Supply & Demand of Child Care in Delaware

AN UNMET NEED

71%

young children (ages 0–5) have all

available parents in the labor force

24%

of Delaware’s workforce has

school-aged children

75.3%

of the total workforce is

between the ages of 18 and 54

20%

of families' median household

income is spent for one child’s care

A WORKER SHORTAGE

≈25%

of Delaware residents live in

a child care desert

96%

of child care centers are

experiencing a staffing shortage

35,481

licensed capacity across Delaware

but total children ages 0–5 is 54,261

73%

of centers say they can't hire because of low early childhood education wages

Source: Child Care is Everyone's Business

News You Can Use

This week’s economic news gets rolling on Tuesday with the NFIB small-business index and results from March. We’ll also learn of March consumer price index figures and federal budget deficit numbers. March producer price index stats are out on Wednesday, while March retail sales, import prices, and early April jobless claims are public on Thursday. We end the week on April 15 (get those taxes done!) with industrial production index figures and capacity utilization results for March.

Companies with earnings calls this week include Albertsons and CarMax on Tuesday and JPMorgan Chase, Delta Air Lines, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and BlackRock headline calls on Wednesday. Thursday kicks off with Ally Financial, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial Services, Rite Aid, Taiwan Semiconductor, and Ericson.

Michael J. Quaranta

President

Delaware State Chamber of Commerce

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Rodel, the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, and the Delaware Department of Education would like to thank leaders across the state for their willingness to host listening sessions that in part informed this publication.