Child Care Sector Adds 2,400 Jobs; Massachusetts Reaches Pre-Pandemic Employment Levels

BERKELEY, CA —Child care sector employment continues to rise, adding 2,400 jobs in April. Yet child care employment remains persistently lower than it was pre-pandemic, according to analysis by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) at UC Berkeley.

Employment is 5.1% below what it was in February 2020. Today’s release is based on the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report.

Child care job numbers from selected states and metro areas generally reflect either the national upwards trends or remain relatively steady.

Notably, Massachusetts, which lost more than half of its child care jobs in the early months of the pandemic, has reached pre-pandemic job numbers. Among the state and metro areas we have tracked, only California remains below pre- pandemic numbers. Nonetheless, the state added about 500 jobs (after accounting for previous February estimates being adjusted upwards) and child care employment in California is now 4.2% below what it was in February 2020.

Check back each month for updates.

*More details on the data source:

• Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2022). Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey.
• Current month’s jobs numbers are a preliminary estimate by BLS. Our figures include BLS adjustments to previous months and thus may differ from earlier Jobs Tracker Figures. These estimates include employees in the “child day care services” industry, which includes child care, Head Start, preschool and school-age care programs. The estimates include employees only and do not include self-employed workers, such as owners of home-based child care figures published by CSCCE.
• These estimates include employees in the “child day care services” industry, which includes child care, Head Start, preschool and school-age care programs. The estimates include employees only and do not include self-employed workers, such as owners of home-based child care.
• This employment data cannot be disaggregated by education, race/ethnicity, role, setting, or funding stream.