More women are quitting their jobs, damaging their careers due to the economy, gaining potential, and gaining spelling trouble.
When childcare costs skyrocket and offices reopen, women pay the price
Miya Walker, a three-year-old mother from Georgia, says the childcare costs and forced returns to the office mean that she has become a home parent.
Miya Walker, 25, wasn’t worried about the cost of raising her child when she became pregnant with her son in 2021. Her role as a data analyst was far away, when her mother needed help.
However, after his son was born in April 2022, his employer returned to his office, an hour-long drive from his home in Snellville, Georgia. Her mom’s arthritis then burned.
Walker said he worked for a hybrid model for months after maternity leave, but soon realized that “it’s just meaningless, economically.” Daycare she wants to send her son to $1,500 a month. Furthermore, he couldn’t stand hearing his screams as she left for work. She quit.
“We are a lot of women, we are educated, we have the ability to work and we want to contribute to the workforce,” Walker said. “It’s just a situation you know. It doesn’t make it sustainable. It doesn’t allow us to navigate the work and be mothers.”
Federal data shows that mothers of young American children are growing share, leaving the workforce, cutting profits they earned during the Covid-19 pandemic. Economists warn that decisions to leave temporarily, even temporarily, could result in permanent damage to revenue and carriers.
“This study clearly has benefits when you leave the labour market or take a step back when you’re young, but it’s not usually financial,” says Lauren Bauer, a fellow economic researcher at the Brookings facility.
Why do more mothers quit their jobs?
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shared with USA Today, shows that 66.4% of women with children under the age of six were in the workforce as of August, down nearly two points from the previous year. Male participation rates increased by 0.4 percentage points over that time frame to 95.6%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics warned that the unpublished data is based on a relatively small sample size, but the decline reflects long-term trends tracked by the Brookings facility’s economic policy initiative, the Hamilton Project.
“Women were driving the post-Covid labor market recovery, but for the past six and seven months, it began to fade,” said Bauer, associate director of the Hamilton Project.
Perhaps a contributor? The end of flexible pandemic-era policies like hybrid and remote work exceeded the record 78.4% of Prime-era women (ages 25-54) participation rates over August 2019, exceeding the record 78.4% in August 2024.
“There are very few gifts from the pandemic, but one of them was our ability to become us as a whole,” said Rain Thomas Conway, vice president of delivery enablement and engagement at a human resources and technology consulting firm. “And don’t hide the fact that we have a dog or that we have children.”
But the increasing abolition of remote work arrangements threatens these benefits, Stanford University economics professor Nick Bloom said he is studying remote locations.
Hybrid work arrangements are even more common in Corporate America, but in recent months, Amazon, AT&T, Boeing, Walmart and other major companies have issued stricter duties, bringing some staff back to the office five days a week.
These orders are especially hard and hard work, especially when parents feel pressured to spend more time on their children.
“They’re working hard to understand,” said Emma Harrington, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Virginia and labor economist studying remote areas.
Last year, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh tracked 3 million engineers and financial workers on LinkedIn, analysed the impact of these missions on 54 S&P 500 companies, finding “unusually high sales” among older people, particularly women.
“Working from home has made it easier to interact with childcare and work. Working from home saves Americans an average of 75 minutes a day, which is invaluable for those who care for their children.” “The push to get back to the office reverses this.”
However, Harrington said that as mothers’ participation rates have been reduced completely, it is likely not a “smoking gun,” as mothers’ participation rates have been reduced completely. Brookings data shows the share of women with young children, with teleworking exceeding 30% of the past year and a half.
Rather, the researchers told USA Today that a variety of factors contribute to declining workforce participation.
Bauer pointed to wider economic trends, such as a decline in migrant workers. Preliminary Census Bureau data analyzed by the Pew Research Center shows that over 1 million migrants left the workforce between January and July, and data from the Hamilton Project shows that participation rates among foreign-born women has been declining since its latest peak in 2023.
“We can’t talk about young children and mothers without talking about immigrant mothers with young children,” Bauer said.
Cutting federal employment could also play a role, as women, particularly black women, are “very successful” in federal, local and state government buildings. Many of the sectors targeting layoffs are women making up the majority of workers, according to a May report by the National Center for Women’s Law.
And Harrington’s best guess? Increased costs of childcare.
The cost and access to childcare is a major burden for many families. A BabyCenter survey of more than 2,000 mothers found that one child’s full-time parenting averages over $16,500 per year, with 40% of respondents saying they were stuck on a weight list that averaged six months.
“Of course, if you’re a working parent, you can’t tell your employer that you need six months of leave while waiting for the daycare spot to open,” said Robin Hilmantel, senior director of editorial strategy and growth at BabyCenter.
Mothers are twice as likely to take time off from work to handle childcare issues, Baby Center found, and 45% of mothers in the survey said they considered reducing time to save on childcare money or suspending work altogether. Another 13% have already left the workforce for the same reason.
Some families have discovered that what one parent can make is not enough to justify the costs, said Philip Fisher, director of the Stanford Center in his childhood.
And because of gender pay gaps, heterosexual couples often find that having their mother at home is a better economic decision.
What women lose and benefits when they leave the workforce
A 2016 survey by Pew Research found that most Americans think it’s better for their children to stay with their parents at home. Also, both genders prefer to work full-time, but a 2025 Gallup survey shows that women are more likely to say they prefer to be at home than men.
Rachel Cora, 29, quit her job as an occupational therapist after giving birth to her son in September 2024, and told USA Today she couldn’t spend time away from him. She hasn’t seen her come back to work.
“I don’t think I got out of it easily,” Cora said.
Research shows that leaving the workplace can be emotionally and financially stressful for women, especially if there are no alternatives.
“Some women choose to take a step back from the workforce. “But the problem is when you’re forced.”
Fisher, director of the Stanford Center in her childhood, reported that mothers who were forced to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours during the pandemic had higher levels of emotional distress, particularly stress (63%), loneliness (43%) and anxiety (42%).
Leave the workforce can also hinder women’s wages and career trajectories. This is what researchers call a “maternal penalty.”
Recent data from Pew Research shows that women earned an average of 85% of what men acquired in 2024, despite the majority of the university-educated workforce.
“Unfortunately, people don’t understand what is a serious decision because it’s about leaving,” said Francine Blau, professor of economics at Cornell University. “A break of labor obsessions will bring you backwards and you will need to go back to where you were when you left.
More women leaving the workforce could have a broader impact on the economy, especially when older workers, lower birth rates and lower immigrant numbers narrow the workforce.
“It’s concerning that we’ll cut down certain groups at this point,” Blau said. “It could contribute to inflation and slow growth.”
But for some, including Georgia-based mother Walker, staying at home with her son is worth a trade-off. She told USA Today that she was reading to him and cherishing her time, pretending to be and watching him brighten up while catching bugs outside.
“It makes my heart so happy and peaceful,” she said.
Madeline Mitchell’s role in covering women and caregiving economy at USA Today is supported by partnership with extremely and Journalism Funding Partner. Funders do not provide editor input.
You reach Madeline with memitchell@usatoday.com and @maddiemitch_ x.
