By 2010, about 85 percent of the U.S. work force will consist of parents, and the number of working women will exceed that of working men, according to a study sponsored by the National Child Care Association.

With that many parents working, the demand for child care figures to increase accordingly. The same study reported the private-sector child-care industry generates about $60 billion in annual revenue, and that figure has been growing at a rate of about 10 percent yearly since 1999.

Kiddie Academy, a private child-care firm that opened its doors in Baltimore in 1981, has seen the private child-care sector grow over the years.

“The industry is growing tremendously,” said Fred Harms, vice president of franchise development for Kiddie Academy.

Wage and salary jobs in the child-care industry are projected to grow 38 percent from 2004 to 2014 period, compared with the 14 percent employment growth projected for all industries combined, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The reason: The number of children under age 5 is expected to increase at a faster rate than in previous years.

Several parenting trends have led to the child-care boom, Harms said. People are choosing to wait longer to have children, and they’re having fewer children, so they have more resources per child, Harms said.

“Today’s parents are different from the baby boomers,” Harms said. “They’re constantly looking for quality programs — they want more than just a baby-sitter.”

Full text available at the Baltimore Examiner.