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The Center for Community Studies at Jefferson Community College has completed a study of Workforce Child Care Needs in the City of Watertown. The study, partially funded with a grant from Cornell’s Economic Development Administration University Center, was designed to quantify the current demand for child care, assess potential gaps and identify the economic and employment impact of child care shortages. In February 2007, The Center surveyed the employees of five major employers in the City of Watertown. Over 1650 people responded to the survey representing 16.6% of the total employees in the City of Watertown. Of those who responded 30.8% or 510 identified themselves as having children in the home who require child care while they work. The results indicate Watertown/Jefferson County employees are using a variety of child care options including family members, non family members and licensed child care providers, however, many remain dissatisfied. Over 50% report that they often have difficulty finding suitable child care services for their children and more than 30% indicate they are currently seeking alternative child care services. The most commonly identified unmet child care needs were for back/up emergency care, sick child care, full day care and after school care. One quarter of respondents expressed a need for some type of childcare on the evening shift and 16% need care on rotating shifts. Ten percent of respondents with children identified themselves as members of households with an active-duty family member stationed at Fort Drum. Of these Fort Drum families, 67% report child care challenges related to military deployments and 55% report challenges stemming from other military circumstances such as temporary duty assignments and shifting hours. Challenges reported with obtaining adequate childcare clearly have an impact on the local economy and employers. Respondents reported that child care challenges had led to missed work days, lost employment, bypassed promotions and limitations on shift availability. Over half (50.4%) report significant stress at work in the past year because they were unable to locate suitable child care. Area employers and governments are paying a hidden cost for inadequate childcare options in Jefferson County and the City of Watertown. Respondents with children report missing a median of 2-5 work days per year because they are unable to secure suitable child care. Extending the reported missed work days to the entire county suggests that child care issues in the area cost local employers between 25,238 and 54,366 lost work days per year, or the equivalent of 14 to 30 workers. At a county annual salary of $31,066 (1999 Economic Census figures corrected to 2007 dollars) this represents a loss of between $434,925 and $931,980 in taxable family income to area businesses and government. The data suggests that an improvement in the overall availability of child care in the area would improve business productivity, increase the general level of industrial/business competitiveness, and have a positive economic impact on the local economy. The ideal child care facility would be able to provide care for a variety of ages including infants; would offer full and part-time coverage on a 24-hour basis; would have provisions for emergency/occasional care and weekends; and would have the ability to care for children who are mildly ill. It is likely that several options will be needed. The Jefferson County Job Development Corporation, the Jefferson Lewis Child Care Project, Jefferson County Planning Department, Samaritan Medical Center, and Stream International contributed to make the study possible. Over the next two weeks the study’s sponsors will be seeking letters of interest to engage individuals interested in opening a child care center in the City of Watertown. For more information or to receive a letter of interest contact Claudia Whitmire at the Jeff-Lewis Child Care Project at Community Action Planning Council of Jefferson Co., Inc. at 782-4900 ext. 140. Download the survey results here.
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