Industry
Obtaining affordable, quality child day care, especially for children under age 5, is a major concern for many parents. Child day care needs are met in different ways. Care in a child's home, care in an organized child care center, and care in a provider's home -- known as family child care -- are all common arrangements for preschool-aged children.
Older children also may receive child day care services when they are not in school, generally through before- and after-school programs or private summer school programs. With the increasing number of households in which both parents work full time, this industry has been one of the fastest growing in the U.S. economy.
The industry consists of establishments that provide paid care for infants, toddlers, preschool children, or older children in before- and after-school programs.
Two main types of child care make up the child day care services industry: center-based care and family child care. Formal child day care centers include preschools, child care centers, and Head Start centers. Family child care providers care for children in their home for a fee and are the majority of self-employed workers in this industry, which does not include occasional babysitters or persons who provide unpaid care in their homes for the children of relatives or friends.
The for-profit sector of this industry includes centers that operate independently or as part of a local or national chain. Nonprofit child day care organizations may provide services in religious institutions, YMCAs and other social and recreation centers, colleges, public schools, social service agencies, and worksites ranging from factories to office complexes.
The number of for-profit establishments has grown rapidly in response to demand for child care services. Within the nonprofit sector, there has been strong growth in Head Start, the federally funded child care program designed to provide disadvantaged children with social, educational, and health services.
Recognizing that the unavailability of child care is a barrier to the employment of many parents, especially qualified women, and that the cost of the benefits is offset by increased employee morale and reduced absenteeism, some employers offer child care benefits to their employees.
Some employers sponsor child care centers in or near the workplace, while others provide direct financial assistance, vouchers, or discounts for child care or after-school or sick-child care services. Still others offer a dependent-care option in a flexible benefits plan.
Child day care services provided about 767,000 wage and salary jobs in 2004. Also, there were about 449,000 self-employed and unpaid family workers in the industry, most of whom were family child care providers, although some were self-employed managers of child care centers. However, employment estimates understate the number of people working in this industry, because they exclude family child care provided by relatives. Also, child care workers who work in the child's home, such as nannies, are classified primarily into the private household industry.
Jobs in child day care are found across the country, mirroring the distribution of the population. However, day care centers are less common in rural areas, where there are fewer children to support a separate facility. Child day care operations vary in size, from the self-employed person caring for a few children in a private home to the large corporate-sponsored center employing a sizable staff. Almost half of all wage and salary jobs in 2004 were located in establishments with fewer than 20 employees. Nearly all establishments have fewer than 50 workers.
Opportunities for self-employment in this industry are among the best in the economy. About 37 percent of all workers in the industry are self-employed, compared with only 7 percent in all industries. This disparity reflects the ease of entering the child day care business.
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