Then came the pandemic. Since then, it seems no matter what Mims does, she can’t attract workers. She’s tried job listing websites. Word of mouth. A sign in the window of the center in the Southgate USA strip mall. None have brought the candidates she needs to reopen three classrooms closed since the early days of the pandemic. The center has a long waitlist of families, some waiting months for spots to open.
What about higher pay?
There are nearly 20% fewer child care slots available in Northeast Ohio than there were in January 2020, even though demand hasn’t decreased. This finding comes from a survey of child care providers by Cleveland-based Starting Point, a nonprofit focused on child and youth issues. Overall capacity is mainly down because of 2,500 vacant child care jobs, most of which were filled before Ohio officially entered the pandemic in March 2020. The vacancies mean providers have had to waitlist or turn away families.
This is perhaps the longest and most severe child care staffing shortage ever in Greater Cleveland, according to everyone Sigal Cleveland interviewed for this article. They range from workers to people who have studied the child care field for years. The staffing shortage was also fueled by vacancies created when Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers, who were a sizable percentage of employees at many Greater Cleveland child care centers, left during the early days of the pandemic.
“We built this quality system based on wages that weren’t that competitive,” said Starting Point’s President and CEO Nancy Mendez. “It wasn’t a huge issue.Then COVID came and what it did was definitely expose the weakness in having a low-wage child care system. You have sectors, like restaurants and customer service, offering salaries of $20 and above. This is devastating the early child care system.”
More at the link.