JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A new report from the business community shows child care is among a concern for manufacturing.
Missouri’s new governor said child care goes hand in hand with a strong economy. Of Missouri’s 114 counties, 94 of them are in a child care desert, which is why the St. Louis Development Corporation is creating a workforce development hub for manufacturing with the goal of offering on-site 24/7 child care.
“If our doors were open today, we would be full,” St. Louis Development Corporation President and CEO Neal Richardson said. “Our goal is to ensure that we are not only attracting those major employers to the region but also providing upscaling and the workforce to be able to supply these jobs.”
Richardson said the plan is to convert a 150,000-square-foot industrial building and turn it into a manufacturing center point for the City of St. Louis. But the struggle with finding the workforce to train is child care.
“If this is the resident base that we are seeking to serve, we have to understand what are the challenges for them to be successful,” Richardson said. “Being able to have our young people being able to walk past this facility to say, ‘Hey, what is this? What’s going on in this building?’ to see training happen, to see machines coming on site, to see trucks moving in and out of their community, and know that they can be a part of that.”
A report from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce showed manufacturing contributes $50 billion to the state’s economy.
“If we don’t have enough workers, we really need to think as a state: how do we help create these smart factories that use automation to supplement workers?” Missouri Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Kara Corches said in December. “If we don’t have enough workers, we need to think about how do we integrate technology into this.”
The Show-Me State ranks behind several of its neighbors, including Tennessee and Kentucky. Manufacturers employ nearly 300,000 Missourians.
“When parents have a safe and reliable place to take their children and know that they are taken care of, they are able to focus on their work and make our communities and economy even stronger,” Gov. Mike Kehoe said during his State of the State address.
Richardson said that is why the St. Louis Development Corporation is making a commitment to both the manufacturing and child care industries with a solution called The Monarch on MLK in north St. Louis, a workforce and training campus.
“It’s important to have these anchors to create pathways to economic mobility for our residents that live in our city because if not, we will continue to see that decline in our population,” Richardson said.
He said the idea for the Monarch on MLK came from Philadelphia and is being paid for by American Rescue Plan Act dollars and by tenants that pay rent.
Back in October 2023, the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority of the City of St. Louis purchased the industrial building in the 3900 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. Besides the building, the group also purchased the 29 surrounding vacant parcels.
The plan is to have the facility open to businesses and partners this summer.