The lack of childcare costs Indiana employers nearly $2 billion per year, according to the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership. The group hosted business leaders Thursday to talk about how the lack of childcare affects the workforce.

Employees without access to high-quality childcare miss, on average, 13 days of work each year or simply have to quit their jobs altogether.

John Sampson is the president and CEO of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership. Speaking at the Indiana Early Learning Summit, he says, in northeast Indiana alone, there will be about 3,000 job openings due to lack of childcare.

“That’s a real life state of the state challenge for us in northeast Indiana, and in Indiana, and we can solve this,” he says.

Business owner and keynote speaker Jim Spurlino advised Indiana companies to solve that challenge by considering investing in childcare for their employees and holding political officials accountable for creating more childcare options.

Contact Justin at jhicks@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @Hicks_JustinM.