Employers added 216,000 jobs in December 2023, according to the latest jobs report, while the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%. Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su joins Yahoo Finance Reporter Jennifer Schonberger to break down the jobs report, specifically as it relates to child care and its impact on women in the labor market.

Regarding the state of child care in the United States, Su explained that "if we do not address child care needs," then "it is going to have a dramatic impact on the ability of women in particular to participate in the labor force."

"People often talk about the cost of child care. We also have to think about the cost if we don't do enough," Su added. "So that's why we are so focused as an administration on doing everything we can within our power to really build up the child care infrastructure and to support child care jobs so that they're also good jobs. Because they're also overwhelmingly done by women."

Video Transcript

JULIE SU: We saw it, we've talked about this here, about women coming back into the labor force it reflecting both confidence and a desire to work and ability to find jobs. This is why President Biden has said from day one, we have to make sure that we build our child care infrastructure along with all of our physical infrastructure, right? This is something that dramatically affected labor force participation during the pandemic, right? We certainly saw that.

But we also know that if we do not address child care needs-- and frankly, this expands beyond child care, right, to elder care. We have an aging population. So if we don't address those, it is going to have a dramatic impact on the ability of women in particular to participate in the labor force.

In fact, the Department of Labor recently put out a study that found that if the United States invested in child care and other family-friendly policies, like paid leave, in the way that other comparable developed countries do, if we did that, it would drive economic growth to the tune of billions of dollars. It's a cost of doing nothing report, meaning if we don't do it, it's costing us as a country about $775 billion a year.

So people often talk about the cost of child care. We also have to think about the cost if we don't do enough. And so that's why we are so focused in administration on doing everything we can within our power to really build up the child care infrastructure and to support child care jobs, so that there are also good jobs because they're also overwhelmingly done by women.

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