Characteristics of child care centre workers in Canada, 2022

Released: 2024-12-19

Workers in child care centres are most likely to work in for-profit centres operating in a single location

In Canada, child care centres providing care to children five years of age and younger employed approximately 137,000 people working on a full- or part-time basis in April 2022. The study "Child care centre workers serving children aged 0 to 5 years in Canada, 2021 to 2022," released today in Economic and Social Reports, uses an innovative business approach to gain insights into the centre-based child care workforce in Canada. Instead of parent-reports, data from the 2022 Canadian Study on the Provision of Child Care Services were assessed for how characteristics such as roles and composition of employees, rates of pay and benefits, employee turnover and vacancies, differed based on centre ownership and organizational structure.

Centres varied by ownership (not-for-profit/government-operated, or for-profit) and organizational structure (whether the owner operated a single site or multiple locations). In 2022, just over one-third (35%) of child care workers were employed in for-profit independent settings, while over one-quarter (27%) worked at either a not-for-profit or government-operated independent (single) centre or a not-for-profit or government-operated multisite centre (26%). Just over one-tenth (11%) worked at for-profit multisite centres.

Nearly one-quarter of child care centres do not provide employee benefits

Just over three in four child care centres (76%) provided some type of benefits to their employees in 2022, such as supplementary health and dental plans, pension plan contributions or group Registered Retirement Savings Plans, paid sick leave, or paid time for training.

Not-for-profit multisite centres (93%) were most likely to provide employee benefits, while for-profit independent centres (61%) were least likely to do so. Additionally, rates of pay for supervisors and staff with early childhood education qualifications were higher at not-for-profit centres than at for-profit centres.

Over one-third of centres have vacant positions for employees with early childhood education qualifications

Turnover of employees was more common among employees with early childhood education qualifications than among supervisors or employees without early childhood education qualifications.

Over one-third (35%) of centres had vacant positions for employees with early childhood education credentials, while less than one in six (15%) had vacancies for employees without credentials and less than 5% had vacancies for supervisors. Generally, vacancies, hires and departures were lowest in not-for-profit independent centres. Applicants lacking skills, experience or qualifications was the most frequently identified difficulty in filling vacant positions across all centre types.

The child care workforce has been described as a cornerstone of the early learning and child care system in Canada. Research into factors that influence the recruitment and retention of qualified employees may provide insights for the expansion and sustainability of a high-quality child care system in Canada.

For information on other releases in the December issue of Economic and Social Reports, please see the Daily release ''Economic and Social Reports, December 2024.''

Products

The article "Child care centre workers serving children aged 0 to 5 years in Canada, 2021 to 2022" is now available in the December 2024 issue of Economic and Social Reports Vol. 4, no. 12 (36280001).

Contact information

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