I have a new column out today with Taryn Morrissey from @AmericanU laying out the likely long-term consequences of the developing child care crisis. Without child care, many more Millennial women are stepping out of the labor force than men https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/news/2020/08/12/489178/covid-19-pandemic-forcing-millennial-mothers-workforce/

Millennials are, roughly speaking, adults aged 24 to 39. We’ve been hit by two economic tidal waves before the oldest of us (me!) has even turned 40. And we are now the largest generational cohort in the U.S, labor force.

So we checked in with the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey and found that Millennial mothers are currently 3x more likely to say that the main reason they’re not working during the pandemic is because of closed school or child care

You might assume that this effect will be temporary, right? Well, possibly not, for two reasons:

1) It’s hard to get back into the labor force right now, with 4 unemployed workers for every job opening, and
2) A ton of child care programs are about to go out of business...

Evidence from @NAEYC suggests that without a major stabilization fund from the federal government, as many as 40-50% of programs could be shuttered by the end of the year https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/our-work/public-policy-advocacy/holding_on_until_help_comes.survey_analysis_july_2020.pdf

We will not have a full and —importantly — gender equitable economic recovery without our child care providers. Right now we’re looking at setting back a generation of mothers and families. For more, listen to this brilliant explanation by @BetseyStevenson https://slate.com/podcasts/what-next/2020/08/childcare-problem-america-covid-economics