Even before the pandemic, Utah faced a significant gap in child care resources for working parents, according to the Division of Workforce Services. Lawmakers discussed concerns during an Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee meeting this week at the state Capitol in Salt Lake City.
A pandemic in its own right : Utah lawmakers looking at solutions to child care shortage msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SALT LAKE CITY For every dollar in revenue, child care providers spend 50 cents to run their businesses, according to one owner.
And when they try to expand, they encounter various costly roadblocks in licensing and zoning as they work with cities, Johnny Anderson, president and CEO of ABC Great Beginnings child care centers, told lawmakers during an Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee meeting Tuesday at the state Capitol.
Cost is just one barrier families and centers themselves face, contributing to a shortage of quality child care options in Utah and the U.S., experts told lawmakers as they prepare to look into the issue ahead of next year s legislative session.
Arkansas hunts for deadbeats
May 13, 20212:31 pm
Arkansas Workforce Services, which has thousands of legitimate applicants for unemployment who’ve been languishing for months for verification checks, promises to be diligent about sniffing about those trying to get a check they don’t deserve.
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It urges them to report anyone not searching diligently enough for a job while receiving the state’s meager regular unemployment, which ends after 16 weeks. The governor has ordered an end to federal benefits 10 weeks early because of employers’ belief that a worker shortage is tied to $300 weekly federal benefits rather than crummy pay and benefits and working conditions; a desire for better work; illness; fear of illness; lack of child care and other reasons. From the letter:
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Friday directed the Division of Workforce Services to end Arkansas’ participation in the federal supplemental unemployment assistance after June.
“The programs were implemented to assist the unemployed during the pandemic when businesses were laying off employees and jobs were scarce,” Hutchinson said in a news release. “As we emerge from COVID-19, retail and service companies, restaurants, and industry are attempting to return to prepandemic unemployment levels, but employees are as scarce today as jobs were a year ago.