Over the past 3 decades, millions of women with children entered the American labor force, changing family life in fundamental ways. Now only 1 of 3 mothers stays at home and provides full-time care for her children, and even mothers of very young children are likely to be in the labor force. Indeed, about half of all preschoolers spends at least part of the day in the care of adults other than their parents.

Growth in the number of day care centers and other forms of nonparental care for children has accompanied this increase in working mothers. But for many families, finding affordable, quality child care can be a problem. Good care with persons other than relatives is often difficult to find or is too expensive, especially for families with low incomes. Relatives and friends are not always able to help out, especially if they do not live nearby or if they are in the labor force themselves. For poor mothers, lack of child care can be a particularly serious obstacle in obtaining and holding a job, compounding the economic disadvantages they often face because of inadequate training, educational attainment, and work experience. These factors can prolong parents' spells of joblessness, preclude sustained employment, or effectively bar them from jobs that pay higher salaries.

For many years, interest groups have lobbied the Federal Government for legislation that would provide increased assistance to parents with child-care needs. In 1990, after considering more than 100 bills with child-care components, the 101st Congress enacted legislation intended to make child care affordable for more parents.3 Parts of the new legislation target poor, single parents who are not employed, providing them with temporary child-care assistance during periods of subsidized job training and during transitional periods after such training. This legislation recognizes that the lack of affordable child care is a serious barrier to the labor force participation of many parents, especially those who are poor.

This article briefly reviews past research and presents newly available data on the extent to which young mothers report being out of the labor force because they cannot arrange for child care.

Source: The Bureau of Labor Statistics