New York (CNN Business)The new school year is just around the corner and parents and teachers are fretting about returning to the classroom during the pandemic. Economists are worried, too, because a lack of childcare could damage America’s recovery.
Single parents, parents with young children and parents who can’t work from home are the groups most at risk to stop working entirely because they have no child care, said Goldman Sachs (GS) economists David Choi and Joseph Briggs in a note to clients on Tuesday.
Nearly a third of the pre-pandemic US labor force has kids at home, and about 15% of the work force falls into at least two of those three risk categories above, Choi and Briggs said. That totals about 24 million people.
Since May, some 7 million people per week have not worked because they didn’t have access to childcare, according to data from the Census Household Pulse Survey, a number that accounts for about 14% of virus-related reasons for missing working.
www.cnn.com/2020/08/04/economy/schools-reopening-economy-jobs/index.html