Workforce in Licensed Center-Based Child Care in New Jersey:

INTRODUCTION

Center-based child care is a crucial component of the supply of early care and education (ECE) services for children birth to age 5 in New Jersey (NJ), playing a vital dual role in supporting children’s development and also their caregivers’ ability to work. These providers are an integral component of New Jersey’s ECE ecosystem. However, families often face challenges finding and accessing centers that meet their multitude of needs due to limited supply and variation in prodiver features (Sandstrom et al., 2024; Stephens et al., 2024). To effectively address gaps in child care access, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the services offered and the quality of center-based child care providers in the state.

This report is the second of a three-part series aimed at providing a comprehensive portrait of licensed center-based child care providers in NJ. We use data from a state-wide survey of child care directors (e.g, Stephens et al., 2026) conducted between October 2023 and September 2024 by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). Topics covered on the survey included center characteristics, enrollment, teaching and non-teaching staff, revenue, and expenses. This effort is part of a multi-center collaborative project with the Center for Women and Work and the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, with support and collaboration from the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF).

We present results of survey questions focusing on the teaching and other administrative non-teaching staff in licensed center-based providers.1 Teaching staff refers to lead teachers, assistant teachers, and other teaching staff such as floaters, relief teachers, and special area teachers. Non-teaching staff at center-based providers include directors or administrators, assistant directors, administrative assistants, and other support staff including health-related staff, coaches, and other non-classroom staff. We first report workforce-level results disaggregated across all teaching and non-teaching staff. Additionally, we report aggregated provider level results that describe how staff with various characteristics are distributed differently across the center-based supply. The findings offer insights into the workforce of center-based providers in NJ that can be used to identify areas where more work is needed to improve and support the ECE workforce in the state.

KEY FINDINGS

Centers’ Teaching Staff Workforce

• The largest share of centers indicated having between 1-10 teaching staff (48%), 31% had between 11-20
  teaching staff, and 21% of centers had more than 20 teaching staff.
• Nearly half (49%) of centers reported having at least 1 teaching vacancy, with 35% of centers reporting
  two or more vacancies. Roughly 1 in 4 centers reported having to close classrooms due to staff shortages.
  This signals instability and/or shortages in the teaching workforce.
• Thirty-nine percent of staff were lead teachers, 50% were assistant teachers, and 11% were in other
  teaching roles. Two out of 3 teachers taught preschool-age children (66%), 42% taught infant and
  toddler-age children, and 13% taught school-age children.
• Forty-one percent of the teaching workforce had non-English language skills, and the largest share of
  teachers were identified as non-Hispanic, White (45%). Two out of 3 centers had at least one teacher (in
  a lead or assistant role) with non-English language skills. This is a crucial asset that should be leveraged to
  effectively support the large fraction of dual-language learners (DLL) in the state, as more than half of
  children five and under in NJ are DLLs (Habben & Kim, 2025).
• Among all teachers, 2 out of 3 were considered full time staff (65%; vs. part time) and worked an average
  of 31 hours per week.
• Average reported hourly pay for the teaching workforce was $19.76, with lead teachers ($23.49) earning
  slightly more than assistant teachers ($17.24) and other teaching staff ($18.12; i.e., floaters, relief
  teachers, and special area teachers).
• On average, 2 out of 3 teaching staff received vacation and sick leave time off, and 1 one out of 4
  received retirement or health insurance benefits.
• One out of 3 of teachers overall, and 3 out of 4 lead teachers had a bachelor's degree or higher.
• One out of 3 teachers overall, and nearly half (46)% of lead teachers had a specialization in early
  childhood education.
   

Centers’ Non-Teaching Staff Workforce

• Most centers (84%) indicated having between 1-5 non-teaching staff. On average, there were
  approximately 5 teaching staff reported for each non-teaching staff.
• Half of the non-teaching staff were in a leadership role (i.e., director or assistant director). Notably, most
  respondents indicated there were no coaches or health-related staff at their center (>90%).
• Average reported hourly pay for the non-teaching workforce was $26.56, with directors and assistant
  directors earning slightly more ($29.75), and non-leadership staff earning less per hour ($23.04).
• Much like teachers, on average, 2 out of 3 non-teaching staff received vacation and sick leave time off,
  and only 1 out of 3 received retirement or health insurance benefits. 
• Two out of 3 non-teaching staff had a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 1 out of 4 staff specialized in early
  childhood education. Only 14% of non-teaching staff had a teaching certification for the early childhood
  years (i.e., P-3, N-K, N-8).
• Nearly half of centers (46%) had at least one non-teaching staff with non-English language skills, and 1
  out of 3 centers had leadership staff with non-English language skills.