Women are leaving the workforce due to child care costs

(CNN)– There’s a chilling trend in the U.S. job market, women are leaving the labor force at some of the highest levels in history.

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics data, an estimated 455,000 women left the workforce between January and August this year.

Only the pandemic saw a larger exodus for that period.

Highly-educated mothers and black women are leading the exodus.

The reasons behind the fall-off are multi-faceted.

The main factor is rising costs of child care and early education.