The Connection Between Child Care and CED? Your Workforce

<p>It is not unusual for North Carolina CED professionals to constantly assess elements critical for local economic growth and community enrichment: public-private partnerships, social capital relationships, placemaking, infrastructure needs and available affordable housing are just a few. This week, an issue that has percolated for years has surfaced in a major way – accessible, affordable childcare as a local economic development priority (it has already been a priority for many community development professionals). And as you’ll read in this post, folks from the local North Carolina business community to the Federal Reserve Board are paying attention.</p> <p>Childcare impacts CED in many important ways, but when considered specifically in an economic development context, it impacts local businesses through workforce availability. On Monday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, in partnership with the NC Chamber Foundation and NC Child released a data and analysis heavy report, Untapped Potential in NC, on the economic impact of barriers to childcare provision to North Carolina businesses. When workers are not able to find accessible, affordable childcare options, the authors found caregivers may have to withdraw from the active workforce, costing North Carolina an estimated $5.65 billion in lost economic activity annually. This figure is based on costs due to absenteeism and employee turnover and lost tax dollars from unearned wages related to barriers to childcare, with a clear description of the underlying assumptions in the report’s economic impact methodology appendix.</p> <p>The immediacy of this issue for CED professionals is being driven in part due to upcoming changes in federal funding support for [...]</p>