Staffing shortages, rising operational expenses, and new curriculum standards were a few of the challenges outlined by childcare providers in a roundtable discussion held on January 9 in Detroit as part of the Chicago Fed’s Spotlight on Childcare and the Labor Market. President Austan Goolsbee and a team of Chicago Fed economists and policy professionals talked with local experts about their experiences providing care to children, an event that marked the beginning of the Bank’s effort to deepen its understanding of the ways in which the lack of access to childcare is a barrier to employment in the Seventh District. Because of childcare’s importance to the labor force, the work is consistent with the Federal Reserve’s mandate to maximize employment. The visit also included a tour of Children of the Rising Sun and MiSide, early childhood centers sharing a facility in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood, as well as an on-site meeting between Goolsbee and the editorial board of The Detroit News.

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