By Joy Borkholder, Photo: Dan DeLong/Investigate West, November 17, 2021
It’s hard to get an economy moving again when almost half of your potential workers can’t leave the house.
That’s basically what it means when unemployed and underemployed people can’t take jobs because they care for their kids at home — either because there is no child care available or because the child care costs nearly as much as or more than what the job would bring in.
In Washington state, about half of unemployed women and about 40% of unemployed men told survey takers that in the year prior to April 2020, child care issues were a barrier to even seeking work. And that was largely the situation before the pandemic, during which many child care centers had to shut their doors or reduce the number of children they could handle.
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