Frontline hiringRead at source, 23 September 2026

The Childcare Staffing Shortage: The 2026 Data, Why Ratios Make It Worse, and How to Recruit Daycare Teachers

The childcare staffing shortage is less about the number of jobs than about keeping them filled. Employment in child care services was 1,088,200 in August 2026 (preliminary), about 3.8 percent above its February 2020 level. But the pay is low — the median childcare worker earned $16.82 an hour in May 2025 — the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 150,300 openings a year for an occupation of about a million, and in NAEYC’s January 2024 survey 68 percent of child care centers reported staff shortages. Because state ratio rules tie enrollment to staff, a single vacancy can take a classroom offline. The centers that recruit well pay for credentials, hire aides into teacher tracks, and advertise locally and continuously.

The childcare staffing shortage in numbers

Headcount recovered; retention did not. Child care services lost more than a third of its jobs in spring 2020 was back above its February 2020 level by mid-2023, and peaked at 1,102,100 in January 2026. By August it had eased to 1,088,200, still about 39,600 jobs above February 2020. The sector is not short of positions. It is short of people who stay in them.

The occupation is shrinking while the openings stay high. BLS projects employment of childcare workers to decline 2 percent over the decade, yet still projects about 150,300 openings a year — about 15 for every 100 jobs, nearly all of them replacements. Preschool teachers are projected to grow 4 percent, with 66,700 openings a year.

The pay is the reason. The May 2025 median for childcare workers, $16.82 an hour, was below the median for waiters and waitresses, $16.94. Centers are competing for the same applicants as restaurants and stores, with a credential requirement and ratio rules those employers do not have.

The daycare teacher shortage, in the field’s own surveys

NAEYC surveys thousands of early childhood educators and program leaders each January. Three years of results describe the same problem:

• January 2024 (10,128 respondents): 53 percent of center directors and family child care operators reported staffing shortages — 68 percent of child care centers, against 19 percent of family child care homes. 55 percent knew of at least one program in their community that had closed in the past six months.
• January 2025 (10,066 respondents): 26 percent of respondents were considering leaving the field within a year. Among programs enrolling fewer children than they could, 37 percent said pay was too low to recruit and retain staff, and 36 percent said they did not have enough staff.
• January 2026 (7,045 respondents): 22 percent of educators were considering leaving within a year; more than half of program leaders reported that they could not afford competitive pay, did not have enough qualified staff or substitutes, or were short-staffed; and leaders reported increases in staff turnover more than four times as often as decreases.

The early childhood educator shortage and the daycare teacher shortage are the same problem described by different parts of the field: the educators are leaving for better-paid work, and the programs cannot replace them fast enough to keep rooms open.

Why ratios turn a vacancy into lost enrollment

Every state licensing agency sets staff-to-child ratios and group sizes by age, tightest for infants. That makes childcare different from most frontline hiring: an open position in a store means a slower checkout; an open position in a center means the room it covers cannot take its full enrollment. In a state with a 1-to-4 infant ratio, one missing teacher takes four infant places offline, and with them the tuition that pays for the rest of the staff.

Two consequences for hiring. First, the staffing target is not “fill the vacancy” but “hold enough qualified floaters to cover absences,” because a sick day has the same effect as a vacancy. Second, the qualification rules in your state decide who counts toward ratio. Know exactly which roles need which credential before you write the ad, so you can hire aides who can work in ratio-exempt support roles while they qualify.

How to recruit daycare teachers

Hire for the credential you will pay for

• Recruit assistants and aides without a credential and pay for the Child Development Associate credential or your state’s equivalent. Tie a raise to completion.
• Look at registered apprenticeship programs for early childhood educators in your state, which can fund training while the apprentice works.
• State the path in the ad: “Start as an assistant teacher at $X. We pay for your CDA. Lead teacher at $Y.”

Lead with what you can offer that others cannot

• Childcare for staff. Free or discounted enrollment for employees’ own children is the benefit most centers can offer that a store cannot, and for a parent it can be worth more than a raise.
• Predictable hours. Weekdays, daytime, no nights and no weekends are real advantages over retail and food service. Put them in the first line.
• Pay, stated. A rate range in the ad, and any public wage supplement your state pays early educators, stated as a number.

Recruit continuously, and locally

Because openings are mostly turnover, a center that recruits only when someone resigns is always a few weeks behind. A small, always-on local campaign keeps a bench of applicants ready for the next resignation. Applicants for childcare roles live near the center, rarely search job boards for “early childhood educator,” and respond to ads that show the actual classroom and staff.

Recruiting childcare staff with Facebook and Instagram ads

• Keep the radius tight. Staff commute from nearby, and Meta’s employment ad rules already set a minimum radius of 15 miles around a location.
• Show the room. A short phone video of a lead teacher explaining why they stay does more than stock images of children.
• Screen for the must-haves only. Age, a background check you will run, and availability. Leave preferences for the phone call. In our 2026 benchmark, the apply experience explained 70 percent of the variation in cost per applicant.
• Call the same day. A candidate choosing between your center and a store will take whichever calls first.

Teacher and instructor campaigns in our benchmark ran a $30.95 median cost per applicant, at an 8 percent apply rate across 15 campaigns — credentialed education roles cost more per applicant than most frontline hourly jobs, because fewer people who click finish the form. The lever that moves it is a shorter form and a credential path that lets you advertise to people who do not have the credential yet.

What this page cannot tell you

It cannot tell you your state’s ratios or qualification rules, which vary widely and change; check your licensing agency before you write the posting. And national employment data cannot show whether your neighborhood is short of staff or short of centers. What it does show is the shape of the problem: stable headcount, low pay, and a workforce that turns over faster than centers can hire.

Related: Childcare Benefits for Employees.

When you get applicants, these childcare interview questions cover daycare assistants and preschool teachers.

Frequently asked questions