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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 02, 2010 | Updated 0 hours, 27 minutes ago
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4/17/2008 12:20:00 PM  | Email this article • Print this article • Comment on this article | | Why is child care a big deal to employers in the U.S.? | • More than 10 million workers are single parents.
• In the next decade, about 85 percent of the work force will be working parents.
• More than 64 percent of women with children younger than 6 years old are in the work force.
• More than 2 million workers are single dads.
Information provided by Oregon Child Care Resource & Referral Network.
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ANALYSIS
Child care linked to economic development
By KATHRYN B. BROWN
EO associate publisher
When the topic of economic development comes up, rarely do people discuss child care. We think they should.
Being pro-economic development means being pro-child care. Communities that lack child care options are communities that lose valuable members of the work force, who either move away or decide not to work because they can't find anyone to care for their children.
In working on this child care series, we have heard stories about professionals, including physicians and attorneys, who decided not to move to this region or considered moving away because they could not find care for their young children. We're concerned that those stories we heard may be the tip of the iceberg.
If you have a business in Umatilla or Morrow county and are having trouble recruiting and keeping employees, you ought to be concerned about the shortage of local child care providers.
Our reporters found that workplaces with a predominantly male work force, such as the Kinzua Resources mill in Pilot Rock, Eastern Oregon Correctional Institute and Two Rivers Correctional Institute, don't see child care as much of a problem.
The Sykes Call Center in Milton-Freewater doesn't hear much from employees about child care struggles - HR Manager Kurt Richter thinks this may be due to Sykes' flexible scheduling options.
Hermiston's Good Shepherd Medical Center - where nearly 90 percent of the work force is female - has clearly found that their on-site child care center helps reduce absenteeism and helps with employee recruitment and retention.
Pendleton's St. Anthony Hospital doesn't have much of a problem keeping a stable work force. But, as nurses and other hospital employees retire and need to be replaced by younger workers, St. Anthony may one day again find that helping employees with child care makes economic sense.
Other large employers, such as Wildhorse Resort & Casino and Cayuse Technologies, are struggling with the shortage of child care too.
One interesting idea is for local child care providers to team up with businesses and reserve a certain number of child care slots for that business's employees. This would assure the provider a steady income and would give the employer a great benefit to offer employees who need child care.
It's clear that some creative solutions to the shortage exist. It's just a matter of convincing businesses and those working on economic development that an investment in affordable, high-quality child care is an investment in today's work force - and tomorrow's work force as well.
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