The child care industry provides well-established economic and child development benefits. When parents cannot work due to unmet child care needs, the size of the potential workforce declines, and local and state economies suffer. U.S. Census Bureau survey data collected between March 2023 and March 2024 suggest that, on average, nearly 15,500 New Hampshire residents ...

Limited access to affordable child care creates significant challenges for New Hampshire’s families and economy, and may hinder New Hampshire’s efforts to support a robust workforce.[1] While New Hampshire families requiring child care experienced challenges with availability, affordability, and quality of care before 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these challenges and highlighted the severity of ...

The Granite State is experiencing a long-predicted workforce shortage that is, in part, related to an aging New Hampshire population, and further exacerbated by fewer residents who are employed or looking for employment than were prior to the pandemic.[1] Future workforce constraints in key industries could be disproportionately severe due to a lack of qualified ...