- September 30, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
Pre-K students wear face masks to protect against the coronavirus during a class at the Dr. Charles Smith Early Childhood Center, Sept. 16, 2021, in Palisades Park, N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy toured the school before announcing plans to plans to provide universal pre-K for all families in New Jersey. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
There’s a puzzling labor shortage in the U.S. economy. It’s puzzling because employers report 11 million job openings, the most on record, yet unemployment remains elevated and workers aren’t chasing those jobs. There are 5.6 million fewer people working than before the Covid-19 pandemic began last year—split evenly among men and women—and the portion of Americans who want to work has fallen abruptly. Obstinate barriers stand between workers and jobs.
One of them is childcare. A patchwork, expensive childcare system shackled working parents before the pandemic, and kept some from working altogether. The pandemic made that worse,…
