Boom in day care industry the result of many social changes

Monthly Labor Review, August, 1995 by William Goodman

1977 1985 1990 1991 Child cared for by-

Father 14 16 17 20

Relative other than parent 31 24 23 24

Nonrelative in child's home 7 6 5 5

Nonrelative in another home 22 22 20 18

Organized facility 13 23 28 23

Mother at work 11 8 6 9

The drop in care by nonrelatives in the child's home is confirmed by the household survey's estimate of child care workers in children's homes. This estimate shows a 37-percent drop, representing a reduction of 200,000 workers from 1972 to 1993. The reduced use of child care workers in the parents, home is related to increasing demand for the services of centers, but the relationship between the two trends is not clear. The greater availability of child care centers may decrease the need for household workers. Alternately, household workers may be less desired by families than in the past. Or, with much larger proportions of women entering occupations in the executive, administrative, managerial, and professional specialty categories,(13) a smaller proportion of women may be available for lower paying jobs, so household help may be harder to find.

Factors relating to cost and convenience

After 13 years of fairly steady and strong growth, the number of working mothers with children under age 6, and those of children from 3 to 5, seems to have about leveled off in the 1990's.(14) But the number of day care workers continued to increase about as steeply as ever. (See chart 1.) Contrasting trends also occurred in an earlier period: from 1979 to 1982, as the number of working mothers increased sharply, the number of day care workers declined. These contrasts indicate that other factors have important effects on the number of day care workers.

Certain developments have, in effect, lowered the price of day care, making it more practical for some mothers of young children to work outside the As a result, more young mothers may have started working.(15) In addition, among working mothers and those who remain at home, these developments also may have increased the popularity of day care centers relative to other available child care arrangements.

Government funding. Several large Federal programs pay billions of dollars far the care and education of young child have increased greatly in recent years. The four largest Federal programs in this area totaled more than $5 billion in fiscal year 1994.

Project Head Start is the most heavily funded of these programs, with 1994 appropriations of $3.3 billion. Local employment in Head Start is largely in the private sector because the program funds local private organizations and local government agencies that perform the work. Head Start is intended to provide comprehensive care for poor or disabled children. Although the project began in 1965, the Congress increased funding substantially in 1990 and continued to increase it greatly in each subsequent year through 1994. (See table 2.) Chart 2 compares the program's appropriations with growth in private-sector child care jobs.