Child Care Is Corporate America’s Business
More companies are finding child care is the solution to their labor woes.
The nonprofit arm of the world’s largest business federation is sounding a stern warning: The skills gap feeding an unprecedented labor shortage will only worsen if companies don’t directly provide child care solutions.
The need to educate the next generation of employees is growing exponentially as more parents enter the workforce, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation told executives during a yearlong road show across the U.S.—from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Austin, Texas. The nonprofit pointed to research that found the first 60 months of a child’s life are critical for brain development: A toddler’s vocabulary at age 3 predicts her third-grade reading achievement.