GREENSBORO, N.C. — We've seen how COVID-19 has impacted schools, businesses, workplaces.
Economists said there is a nationwide labor shortage that's impacting bus drivers, but now we see a lack of childcare employees.
Hallways that should be full of children have had to close their doors for a few days because of a surge in COVID cases and not enough employees.
Wishview Children's Center is one of several childcare businesses in Greensboro that has had to close its doors for a few days due to a surge.
Donna Danzy, the owner of Wishview Children's Center and Piedmont Global Preschool, said the past few weeks were hard on childcare centers.
"We would have never thought at this point in the pandemic that we’d be seeing numbers like this and feeling impact like this,” Danzy explains and goes on to say that thousands of parents to impacted by these closures.
Triad Christian Academy is another that's closed, blaming their vacant classrooms on COVID cases and an urgent need for more employees.
“We are facing a short staff crisis. I have been short-staffed since September 2021. I’m trying to gain more staff. I’m trying to pay higher wages and also raise current salaries," Triad Christian Academy Director, Dantannica Strong said.
Strong explains that because of the shortage of teachers, there is a waitlist on every class, and they will not be accepting any other children until they can hire more staff.
But why is this happening? WFMY reached out to Amit Malhan, an Assistant Professor at NC A&T specializing in supply chain management, to explain.
"There’s a huge labor shortage because of the pandemic. People have been laid off, and now, according to a survey by McKenzie, the job openings have risen by 50%, but the job participation is down by 4.7 million, so there is this huge labor shortage,” Malhan said.
So how long can we expect these issues to continue? Malhan said probably another year or so.
Triad Christian Academy said they are receiving a stabilization grant to increase wages for current and new employees.
Childcare centers said they still need additional help from the local, county, and state government as well as more rapid PCR tests to have on hand must stay open.