Rochelle Wilcox, the owner of three childcare centres in New Orleans, receives 10 to 15 phone calls almost every day for each school from parents asking if there is room for their children.
But Wilcox has to overcome them. While its enrolment has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, it does not have the staff to take on more students.
“I have to say we are full,” Wilcox said, narrowing the waiting list to three schools at 140 children, compared to the more typical range of 45 to 60. She estimates the school could accept about 40 more children if it can hire 10 more employees.
Childcare centres across the country are struggling to find enough qualified teachers to fully staff for the back-to-school season, a hurdle that has caused some schools to reduce planned enrolment and cut hours.
Owners of childcare centres say more workers are leaving jobs and fewer people are applying for open positions than usual.
Staff shortages are further limiting childcare options for parents wanting to go back to work. It also creates more barriers for working mothers here, who were disproportionately excluded from the labour market here when schools went virtual and childcare centres closed due to the pandemic.
Without reliable childcare, it will be more difficult for those parents to return to stable work schedules, economists say, potentially slowing a labour market recovery that many had hoped would come as a blow. Schools have reopened this fall and that becomes even more important. The benefit expires in September.
According to a survey, four out of five early childhood teachers working in childcare centres said they had staff shortages in late June and early July.
Here by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. More than one in three respondents said they were thinking of leaving or closing their centres this year.
Recruiting childcare workers has always been difficult because wages are generally low – workers earn an average of $12 an hour, according to the Department of Labour – and the work is in demand. But the pandemic exacerbated the challenges, jeopardising the health of workers and creating more responsibilities for those on the job, with many leaving their jobs.
The renewed focus on the workforce is fuelling a national conversation about early childhood teachers and what needs to change to provide them with more opportunities and reduce turnover.
Mara Bollis, associate director of women’s economic rights for Oxfam America, said: “I think right now we are re-evaluating care work and realising that care work is what makes all other work possible. “
Burn
Employment of child daycare workers declined by 36 per cent at the start of the pandemic after many centres closed, according to Labor Department data, which was the roughly 15 per cent drop in employment seen in the U.S. labour market overall. Childcare employment was still down 11 per cent from July’s pre-pandemic levels, while the overall labour market was down 4.0 per cent.
Some workers leaving the industry now say they are concerned about health risks or burnout after being asked to work longer hours with little support. Some are moving into more lucrative roles as nanny, which became in high demand with daycare centres closed during the pandemic and more families opting to keep their children at home.
Amanda Chugh worked in the early part of the pandemic at a childcare centre located on a hospital complex in Portland, Oregon. But she left in May of 2020 because too many of her co-workers were showing up to work sick and she was worried about exposing her roommate, who is immune, to COVID-19.
“It is not uncommon in childcare to see people coming to work getting sick,” said 26-year-old Chugh, who now works as a nanny caring for two children aged four and six. Along the way, it got to a place where it was unstable for me.”
Jordan Potts, 21, realised it was time for a turnaround after being asked to work multiple 12-hour shifts because the centre where he worked in North Texas was short of staff. Many teachers hired to help leave after a week or two.
“It kind of clicked, burnout,” said Potts, who left in August after nearly three years in the industry. Instead of taking care of a room for about 10 one-year-olds, Potts is now working as a full-time nanny to care for a five-month-old. While her salary is roughly the same, her responsibilities as a nanny are more manageable, said Potts, who starts college in January and wants to be an elementary school teacher.
Looking for solution
Owners of childcare centres say they want to raise wages to retain more workers. But they argue they are limited in how much they can offer before increasing tuition – putting more pressure on families already struggling to afford childcare.
This tension is not new, but some childcare centre owners feel they are competing more intensely with retailers, restaurants and other businesses able to raise wages or increase benefits to attract more workers during the pandemic. Huh.
Wilcox, the owner of childcare centres in New Orleans, increased hourly wages for all of her employees this spring, going from a range of $10 to $13 an hour to a range of $12 to $16. But she still hasn’t filled all her openings.
In addition to better pay, early childhood teachers say they need more opportunities for growth within the field, support from staff and wider access to health insurance, sick time and other benefits.
Megan Ahern initially envisioned that when she began teaching pre-kindergarten full-time in Eugene, Oregon, in September of 2020, she would spend her evenings coming up with creative lesson plans.
But after struggling to buy groceries on her teacher’s paycheck alone, the 25-year-old started delivering meals through Uber Eats after school. She used to work around 12 hours a day between the two jobs.
Ahern, who left school in late August, said she didn’t have the resources she needed for her class, which included some children with special needs. Some children would hit, bite or urinate on him. She was so overwhelmed that she often found herself in tears during her 30-minute lunch break.
Ahern’s pay was raised from $13 an hour to $17 an hour in early August, but that wasn’t enough to change her mind. “Ideally I’ll be able to get back to work with the kids at some point,” said Ahern, who plans to distribute food until she can find another job. “But I just need a break.”