How the Pandemic Baby Bust Changed Families' Spending
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here's your money briefing for tuesday april 13th i'm jr whalen for the wall street journal the pandemic upended nearly every aspect of our work and family lives it also resulted in a baby bust in the u.s leading many couples to put off plans to expand their families
So, you know, as a result of the pandemic, about 300,000 fewer babies would be born in the United States in 2021.
Coming up, our personal finance reporter Veronica Dagger will discuss various ways the pandemic has affected families' financial decisions, including everything from child care to fertility benefits. That's after the break.
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The pandemic upended the financial calculus for many American families' decisions around having children and caring for them. Our personal finance reporter, Veronica Dagger, has been looking into this, and she joins me now to discuss. Veronica, thanks for being here.
Thanks for having me, JR.
So let's start with child care. That's one of the biggest expenses for a lot of families.
How did the pandemic cause a U.S. baby bust and what is the scale of the decline?
But when lockdowns hit last year, many kids were home 24 hours a day.
The daycare industry was very hard hit, especially at the height of the pandemic. Like many other businesses, they had to shut down. It was mandatory to shut down. A lot of parents were very worried. They didn't know the effect of COVID-19 on children and said they pulled the kids out of daycare, even if they had the opportunity to have their kids in daycare, if that daycare was still open. Parents pulled out. They were very nervous. This is an industry that before the pandemic, there was a real shortage of quality daycare options. And because of the pandemic, a lot of the mom and pop locations have shut down. And so that means even less supply. As we're coming out of the pandemic, there's going to be even less choices for parents, places to send their kids for daycare.
And so get ready for a long wait list, again, if you want to get your kid into daycare.
And of course, the question of safety will be important to families' decisions about childcare.
You know, that is definitely a factor. They want to be confident that their children are going to be safe. I think as vaccines become more widely available, demand is going to return, especially as parents sort through some of these practical issues. You know, obviously you want to keep your kids safe. That's number one. But if your company is saying, you know, come back into the office, even if it's three days a week, you're going to be scrambling for some sort of daycare option that is doable for you and your family. And so the demand for these services will also come from that practical need that parents need to address.
And then there's the whole idea of hybrid work that we've talked about on the show with parents going back to the office a few days a week and working from home the rest. How's that going to factor into child care decisions?
Some people say this could actually help demand this increased complexity around care.
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