Between the months of February and April, the number of female childcare providers dropped from 972,600 to 622,300 - roughly 20% in comparison to an 8% drop in the number of all working Americans. Close to a million workers make up the childcare industry, of which 95% are women, and they are 2 1/2 times more likely to be Black and Latinas than in the overall workforce. Childcare providers, who provide care to approximately 12 million children under the age of 5, are among the lowest paid in the U.S., with more than 1 in 10 living below poverty line. While Congress had given $3.5 billion to help the industry in April, a group of nearly 500 state and national organizations say that another $50 billion is needed to prevent more closures of child care centers by October.
See "Nearly 20 percent of childcare providers have lost their jobs since February", David Welna, NPR, August 20, 2020