Building and Sustaining the Child Care and Early Education Workforce: Secondary Data Analysis Series

This series reports findings from analyses of existing data, including administrative data, to address questions about how teachers acquire credentials, enter, stay in, and exit the CCEE field. The findings shed light on workforce dynamics within CCEE and how existing data can be used to answer additional questions. Using data to better understand how CCEE workers acquire credentials and move through the labor market can inform the development of targeted recruitment and retention strategies, as well as evaluations of these strategies.

Using Unemployment Insurance Wage Data to Better Understand the Experiences of the Child Care (OPRE Report 2023-308) (PDF)

• States’ UI wage data may be used to understand employment trajectories, such as employee tenure, career paths, and wage progression using worker-level analyses. A strength of these data is the ability to contextualize labor market patterns in CCEE against patterns in other industries.
• Analyses that use UI wage data to define the CCEE workforce assume that all individuals employed by employers in the “Child Day Care Services” NAICS code are CCEE workers. 
• UI data do not include information on role within CCEE or characteristics of the settings or individual workers. Linked data sources that include UI wage data as well as other sources can help address these challenges. 
• Employer-level measures of workforce dynamics can also be calculated using UI data aggregated by employer ID.

What were the wages and employment trajectories of child care workers in Illinois over the last 2 decades? (OPRE Report 2024-017 (PDF)

• Child care workers in Illinois saw a 12 percent increase in inflation-adjusted wages between 2006 and 2019 followed by a 9 percent increase between 2019 and 2021.
• In 2019, new child care workers in Illinois had prior employment in industries such as Food Services, Education, and Administrative Services. Wages earned in past employment were similar to or lower than starting child care wages.
• More than half of Illinois child care workers left the industry after less than two years of employment in the field. 
• Nearly one out of every three workers who moved from child care to another industry in Illinois took a job in education. 

Enrollment and Completion of Early Childhood Education Postsecondary Programs in Colorado (OPRE Report 2024-031) (PDF)

• Across ECE postsecondary programs in Colorado, the racial/ethnic distribution of the students matched the state’s overall workforce.
• Students in ECE associate degree programs and comparable certificate programs in Colorado were generally older and had prior work experience in CCEE relative to students in bachelor’s degree programs. 
• Only 8 percent of Colorado students enrolled in ECE associate degree or certificate programs of similar length had completed one of those credentials within three years. Among those students who earned a degree (generally between 2017 and 2019), a little over half were working in CCEE one year after earning their degrees, with a median annualized wage of $28,702.
• About 21 percent of those enrolled in ECE bachelor’s degree programs in Colorado graduated within four years, and 43 percent graduated within six years. About 75 percent ECE bachelor’s degree graduates (earning a degree generally between 2016 and 2019) were working in CCEE one year after graduation, with a median annualized wage of $32,620. 

Retention and Credential Attainment: A Profile of Montana’s Child Care and Early Education Workforce (OPRE Report 2024-032) (PDF)

• In 2021, there were about 4,600 individuals in Montana working as directors or teachers at licensed providers.  Average wages varied by setting, with those in school-based and Head Start settings earning $17 to $20 per hour, and those in child care centers and home-based settings earning $12 to $13 per hour. 
• Among those working in the field in 2019 in Montana, about 60 percent were still in the field in 2021. Educators in home-based settings had higher retention rates than those in center-based settings, and assistant teachers had lower retention rates than directors and lead teachers. Higher wages were also associated with higher retention. 
• One in four educators working in 2019 in Montana had earned a new credential by 2021, with the most common credential being shorter-term certificates. Teachers in center-based settings were more likely than those in home-based settings to earn credentials, and lead teachers were more likely to earn credentials than directors and assistant teachers. 

• The analysis of Illinois UI wage records uses Illinois quarterly UI wage records from the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2021. The brief defines child care providers as employers from the “Child Day Care Services” industry. The analysis focuses on all child care workers in each year as well as new entrants into the industry. 
• The analysis of enrollees in early childhood education postsecondary programs in Colorado used data sets created through the Colorado Early Care and Education Workforce Data Project, which used the Linked Information Network of Colorado infrastructure to combine data sets from multiple state agencies: the Colorado Department of Higher Education (for degrees and enrollments), the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (for CCEE role), and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (for UI wages). The analysis is based on two entry cohorts:  students who were newly enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program between fall 2012 and fall 2013; and students who were newly enrolled in an ECE associate degree program or in an ECE certificate program between fall 2015 and fall 2016.
• The analysis of retention and credentials in Montana’s CCEE workforce uses data from the ECE Practitioner Registry from 2019 through 2021 maintained by the Early Childhood Project at the University of Montana, which tracks teachers’ employment, training, and credential receipt.  The analysis of two-year retention focuses on teachers registered in 2019.  The analysis of credential attainment focuses on individuals working in CCEE in both 2019 and 2021.

Wiegand, McQuown, and Goerge. (2024). Using Unemployment Insurance Wage Data to Better Understand the Experiences of the Child Care and Early Education Workforce Over Time: Methods Brief. OPRE Report 2023-308. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/building-and-sustaining-early-care-and-education-workforce-base

Wiegand, Emily R., Robert M. Goerge, Hyein Kang, and David McQuown. (2024). What were the wages and employment trajectories of child care workers in Illinois over the last two decades?, OPRE Report 2024-017. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/building-and-sustaining-early-care-and-education-workforce-base  

Wiegand, Emily R., Shannon Guiltinan, Thao Tran, and Robert M. Goerge. (2024). Enrollment and Completion of Early Childhood Education Postsecondary Programs in Colorado, OPRE Report 2024-031. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/building-and-sustaining-early-care-and-education-workforce-base  

Miller, Cynthia, and Danielle Cummings. (2024). Retention and Credential Attainment: A Profile of Montana’s Child Care and Early Education Workforce, OPRE Report 2024-032. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/building-and-sustaining-early-care-and-education-workforce-base