This came to me via my colleague Wendy Creelman this morning:

From –

Tough economy: Some child care spots open as parents lose jobs 

The ease with which Lauro found a spot would seem to be good news
for Kern County, where in the past civic leaders have wrung their hands
over inadequate licensed child care supply.

There are early
indications the tide is turning, but that could be a mixed blessing.
Those openings may be a sign of a weak economy.

Kern County’s
unemployment rate was nearly 14 percent in January, according to the
California Employment Development Department. That’s compared with 10.6
percent statewide and 8.5 percent nationally.

With fewer people working, there isn’t as much need for child care.

It’s
tough to pinpoint the region’s precise child care capacity because
commercial and home-based centers open and close every month, but
there’s anecdotal evidence that vacancies are on the upswing.

“One
of the things that we’ve seen is that some of the child care centers in
town that never had openings, who used to have waiting lists, now are
starting to have openings,” said Lisa Duncan-Purcell, program manager
of Community Connection for Child Care, a local child development and
family services agency that operates a child care referral service.