Carson City parents left scrambling for summer youth programs due to enrollment caps, cancellations and staffing issues

During the past two years, many of the 12,000 children and adolescents living in Carson City have simply been spending their vacations at home due to the pandemic and the associated insecurities of school or daycare closures.

This year, however, many families hoping to return to “normal” with summer camps and youth programming found many programs have been capped or even canceled due to a lack of staffing.

The idea that “no one wants to work anymore” and people are living off of pandemic unemployment simply isn't true, since unemployment across the nation is at only 3.6 percent, near identical to pre-pandemic numbers. However, a majority of individuals have left the work force completely either due to retirement or due to childcare issues, which does not factor into unemployment numbers.

When it comes to families, women were far more likely to leave the work force to care for and homeschool their children during the pandemic when schools and childcare facilities were shuttered.

In fact, during the pandemic 1.1 million women left the labor force, accounting for 63 percent of all jobs lost and bringing the total number of working women down to a 30-year low.

During the first year of the pandemic, 4.9 million Americans left the work force, the majority of whom retired. While some retirees have actually rejoined the work force following the creation of the COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters, many caregivers are finding themselves having to determine whether it's more expensive to pay for childcare than they would be able to make if they went back to work.

For example, in Nevada, families are paying an average of $951 per month for infant care, and $754 per month for preschool, per child. To put this in perspective, the cost of infant care for one child is nearly double the cost of an instate Nevadan college tuition. In addition, the median household brought home $4,900 — meaning nearly 20 percent would go to daycare for a single infant.

While cost is a part of the issue, in Carson City and the surrounding areas, the main problem this summer is the lack of any available childcare for day camps.

Currently, the Boys and Girls Club had to cap their attendance at 60 percent of what it was pre-pandemic due to not having enough staff.

Camp Carson capped their attendance for similar reasons.

The Salvation Army day camp couldn’t even operate due to the fact that it couldn’t find the minimum of seven workers to be able to open for the summer.

One reason the camps and facilities are having a hard time finding staff is most likely due to wages. Camp Carson, which is run by Carson City Parks and Recreation, has its wages set by the annual city budget. While a $1.50 raise was approved during this cycle for youth staff, that still only brings the total to around $11 per hour.

Similarly, the Boys and Girls Club pays summer youth staff a starting wage of $11, a number which Executive Director Brett Zunino stated will need to increase in order to find — and retain — valuable workers.

“I’ve always said (people) invest in what’s important to them,” said Zunino. “For us, that has to be our staff.”

In addition to pay, Zunino stated the club also gives staff members a tank of gas each month in addition to paid time off and flexible scheduling.

However, when going up against other entry-level jobs in the area such as fast-food which can start with wages as high as $16 per hour, or companies that offer free college to their workers, it can be challenging to find enough people to hire — especially when the average teen wage has now risen to $18 nationwide according to some wage sources.

The other issue with finding enough teenagers to work “traditional” teenaged jobs like summer camps, lifeguarding, and fast-food, is that there are simply less teenagers to go around. The percentage of the U.S. population aged 0-18 has been falling approximately 0.2 - 0.3 percent (nearly 990,000 people) each year since 2009.

Fertility rates have continued to fall during the same time period, with an up to 18 percent decrease in some areas between 2007 and 2017. While this might mean there are less children that need childcare, it also means there are less workers to fill traditional teen summer jobs.

And for those families who do have children, especially in Nevada, they are having to compete against each other for fewer and fewer spots in childcare each year.

In the beginning of the pandemic, nearly 30 percent of Nevada’s licensed child care facilities closed, many of them permanently. 

The majority of Nevadans experience what is referred to as “child care deserts,” which means residents are lacking access to enough quality childcare. In fact, Nevada is the second worst in the nation when it comes to inadequate child care, second only to Utah.

When individuals can find a spot in programs, price can also be a hindrance, especially if they have multiple children.

For example, in Carson City there appear to only be three options for summer day camps this year which are functioning: St. Teresa of Avila’s Summer Camp at $150 per week, Camp Carson at $110 per week, or the Boys and Girls Club at $60 per week, not including any registration fees, swim lessons, or field trip fees. That means that for one child, parents are looking to spend $240 to $600 per month per child minimum for summer programing, if they can secure a spot.

With the average wage worker in Carson City bringing home about $2,800 per month, that means they could be spending 9 - 21 percent of their total income per child on day camp alone.

This presents a Catch-22 problem: more caregivers could return to the work force, including in the childcare sector, if they can find childcare for their children; but, there are not enough childcare options because facilities cannot find enough workers.

Until child care programming is able to compete against other industries that rely on the teen-and-college-aged-work-force, which are offering higher wages and benefits such as paid vacation and free college, the prognosis for summer youth programming in the region remains bleak.