Child Care as a Constraint on Employment: Prevalence, Correlates, and Bearing on the Work and Fertility Nexus

This study examines the extent to which the unavailability of satisfactory child care is a constrait on employment for mothers with children under five years of age. It also explores some of the social and demographic correlates of constrait and the role child care plays in the relationship between labor-force participation and fertility. The analysis is based on data from the June 1977 Current Population Survey for the United States. A substantial minority of mothers with young children, both nonemployed and employed, feel that if child care were available at reasonable cost, they would seek employment or work more hours. Child-care constrait seems to be most prevalent among mothers who are young, black, single, with low education and with little income. The relatively low fertility expectations among those prevented from working by the unavailability of child care suggests that not just current employment, but also the intention of desire to work, is related to fertility behavior. The differential in births expected by labor-force status is minimized by the inclusion of "constrainess" with the nonemployed.