Child-care centers struggle to staff up, fanning fears workers have left the industry for good

The child-care industry has long struggled with finding, hiring and retaining workers, largely because of low wages and benefits. The Covid pandemic has only made things worse.

"I'll be completely honest, we are at a loss," said Garcia. "We are not having any luck finding anyone that wants to return to the workforce at this point. If we don't begin to get staff into our centers, I'm potentially looking at closing classrooms, which is only going to decrease access to my families, and I'm not really sure how that's going to help our community recover.

Annual turnover in the industry pre-pandemic has been estimated to be as high as 30%, according to Katie Hamm, associate deputy KinderCare has been able to attract workers because of its culture and the benefits it offers employees, which include health insurance, a 401 plan, child-care discounts, and reimbursements for degrees and certifications, Wyatt said. As a national company, KinderCare has the benefit of scale that many smaller providers don't, he said. But even with these advantages, the company isn't operating at full capacity.

She said she has seen many workers struggle to survive on low wages, even if benefits are available to them. In order to service all the families on her waitlist, Garcia needs to hire 12 workers as soon as possible. But 20 hires, who fall under every level of qualification, would get her business open at full capacity, offering care seven days a week.

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