Tough times for working moms in 2022

Then it got worse. A formula shortage had parents scrambling to feed their kids while inflation at a four-decade high made everything more expensive. The fall brought more bouts of illness for kids along with shortages of the medicines used to treat them. All of this against a backdrop of unrelenting rising costs for child care.

One-third of millennial and Gen Z moms paying for child care say it contributes to financial stress, according to a survey. Meanwhile, the share of Americans struggling to pay bills is approaching its 2020 peak and household debt is climbing at the fastest pace since the Great Recession in 2008.

More Americans missed work this fall than at any other time during the pandemic because of child-care problems or other family obligations, according to the Labor Department. The child-care workforce is down 8% from pre-pandemic levels, and half of the providers say the shortage has forced them to cut back on how many children they serve.

“It’s almost like we have amnesia,” said Vicki Shabo, a senior fellow focused on paid leave policy at New America, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C. “The pandemic brought into sharp relief the need we have in this country to invest in care.”