Illinois business leaders: Workforce crisis calls for further investments in child care, early education

ROCKFORD — The child care crisis continues to roil the workforce while employers and managers still struggle to hire skilled job applicants, according to a statewide poll of business leaders formally released Tuesday in Rockford.

More than 91% of respondents to the ReadyNation Illinois-commissioned poll support “greater public investments in high-quality child care and early childhood education,” with over half of them registering “strong” support.

“These findings make it clear: Business leaders want to protect and strengthen vital services for young children and their families – and they consider this a top economic priority,” said Rudy Valdez, a retired aerospace industry executive who serves as board president of the economic-development group South West Ideas for Today & Tomorrow.

He was among the Rockford-area executives who gathered at Summerdale Early Childhood Center on Tuesday. Like other business leaders at the event, Valdez is a member of the nonprofit, nonpartisan, network of business executives known as ReadyNation Illinois; its aim is to strengthen the state’s workforce and economy via research-proven investments in kids’ learning and development, according to a news release.

ReadyNation does not provide children’s services, but champions key public-policy priorities that provide a backdrop of support for school- and community-based programs statewide. ReadyNation Illinois commissioned the statewide survey of 400 business leaders, which was conducted by the national polling firm Zogby Analytics, of New Hartford, New York.

The online poll took place over the four weeks ending Jan. 9, 2025, and carries a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percentage points. It plumbed the opinions of executives from a wide range of sectors, focusing on businesses of 100-plus employees and annual revenues of at least $10 million, according to the release.

Among other findings, more than 4 out of 5 business leaders reported seeing employees struggle with finding affordable, stable child care.

“There’s no hope of a functional, productive economy without child care,” said Amanda Wike, executive director of the Dixon Chamber of Commerce & Main Street, who has worked extensively to shore up child care capacity in her community.

Wike noted the costly fallout that surveyed business leaders related from child care problems: employees’ resulting loss of work hours (66.4% of respondents saw that), lost wages (58.3%) and lost jobs (37.3%) as well as overall reductions in business productivity (66.8%) and employers’ need to hire new workers because of displacements (63.3%).

Meanwhile, Lesly Couper illustrated another challenge detailed in the poll and reflected her own observations as president of Workplace Staffing in Rockford.

“Every employer wants to field a well-qualified workforce,” she said. “Yet about 80% of our survey respondents related difficulties in hiring workers with strong skills. Skills deficits come with a cost.”

According to the release, 95% of executives reported their businesses spending more to recruit well-skilled candidates than in previous years; 19% noted “significant” additional spending.

The ReadyNation poll further revealed employers’ and managers’ understanding of the value of high-quality child care and early education in wisely approaching workforce challenges over time, calling these public investments important for:

• Helping working parents find and retain jobs today (88.5% agreement)
• Laying “an early skills foundation for young children’s success” in school and careers (86%).

“About 89% of Illinois business leaders also agree that high-quality early childhood programs make local communities desirable for businesses and employees, alike,” said Sheila Brown, president and CEO of the Rockford Black Chamber of Commerce.

She spoke from the experience of more than two decades of work in child care.

“The teachers and staff of early childhood programs truly form ‘the workforce behind our entire workforce,’” Brown said. She added that 97% of survey respondents agreed that investing to improve the quality and stability of the early childhood workforce would benefit Illinois’ economic development.

ReadyNation supports further investments in child care assistance as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently proposed for fiscal 26, including grants to raise child care teachers’ pay. This represents another step in his multiyear Smart Start initiative, which in turn reflects the long-term recommendations of the bipartisan Early Childhood Funding Commission for strengthening the state’s system of birth-to-5 services, according to ReadyNation.

ReadyNation members participated in the commission’s research and hearings, and called its 2021 recommendations “a good business plan” for Illinois. The group continues to press for further state investments in pre-K, Early Intervention therapies for infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities or delays, and home-visiting programs that provide “coaching” assistance for new and expectant parents.

At the federal level, ReadyNation asks policymakers to preserve and strengthen Head Start and other early childhood programs that benefit young children, parents, and the entire economy. ReadyNation will be sharing its poll findings with federal and state policymakers.

Also participating in Tuesday’s news event were Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara, Rockford School District 205 Superintendent Ehren Jarrett, and Alignment Rockford Executive Director Emily Klonicki.