As Companies Reopen, Employees Scramble to Find Child Care

Darrell Ford’s supervisor calls him almost every day, asking when he’ll return to his building-maintenance job in Duluth, Minn.

“We don’t have an answer because we don’t have anyone to watch our son,” says his wife, Tasha Ford. Mr. Ford cares for their 4-year-old son, Elijah, while Ms. Ford works from home for UnitedHealth Group Inc., helping mental-health providers file claims.

Because Elijah has previously had respiratory problems, the Fords pulled him out of his day-care center in March when the scope of the coronavirus pandemic was becoming clear. The Fords would place Elijah in home-based day care, but none in their rural Minnesota town have space for him, and searches on Facebook for a babysitter have been unsuccessful.

Some legislators and commentators worry that generous unemployment checks will discourage people from going back to work, but many U.S. workers are coping with a more quotidian barrier: a lack of child care. As the novel coronavirus blazes through the country, most schooling has moved online and thousands of day-care facilities have shut down, either by decree or because demand has cratered.