A shortage of child care workers is causing families to struggle.

A new report by Wells Fargo finds that a labor shortage in the child care field has impacted nearly half a million families in recent months. Experts believe that low wages may be contributing to the current labor shortage in the industry.

The report also found that because many parents struggle to find reliable long-term childcare, they may be staying at home, adding to labor shortages in other fields.

The lack of reliable child care has caused thousands to take a career break in the last two years. And while many women still see a stigma attached to career breaks, new data shows that may be changing.

New findings from LinkedIn show that about half of hiring managers say career breaks are becoming more common. Nearly the same number of hiring managers say they think people who have taken breaks in their careers are an untapped talent pool.

"A lot of people say that you learn a lot of valuable soft skills, like time management, excellent communication, being able to ruthlessly prioritize," said Camilla Han-He, a senior product manager at LinkedIn. "So, don't shy away from adding those things to your profile. They're valid, they're real and they're super valuable."

Other skills women say they've learned during a career break include self-awareness, patience, decision making, problem-solving and creative thinking. They're all skills that career experts say people who have taken career breaks should highlight on their resumes and mention during the interview.

Hiring managers say people often undersell many valuable skills they've learned during a career break.

"Make sure that you practice the kind of story that you want to tell around your career break, and also make sure that you're able to tie the skills that you've learned to what you're able to offer in the new job," Han-He said.

LinkedIn says it has seen more job postings in the U.S. that mention career breaks. In 2021 those postings were up 63% from 2020, and they're up nearly 100% from 2018.

LinkedIn recently made it easier to share the context around career breaks. Find the new feature under the "experience" section on a LinkedIn profile.

For the first time in roughly four months, weekly jobless claims in the U.S. have risen. The Department of Labor’s latest reports shows 1.4 million people filed new jobless claims, compared to 1.3 million people the week prior.

“People are overwhelmed by the news. They are overwhelmed when they see that a million extra people just filed for unemployment,” said Sarah Johnston, a job search strategist.

Johnston runs the company Briefcase Coach and specializes in helping people find work in this job market.

“The good news is my clients and I know from looking at LinkedIn’s update, people are getting jobs,” said Johnston.

Finding a job right now, with such high unemployment, is not easy. It is competitive but--as Johnston teaches in a course with LinkedIn-- if you search in the “hidden job market,” you’ll find better success.

“The hidden job market is all the jobs that are unadvertised online,” said Johnston.

These jobs may be unadvertised because an employer may be planning a promotion or expanding but hasn’t announced that yet. If you can get to know the hiring manager before new jobs post, you have a better chance of topping their list of candidates.

“Tip number one is to understand what your options are. You really need to know your target companies, who hires people like you for work that you want to do,” said Johnston.

She recommends creating a “target list” of the companies you want to work for and find out who are the hiring managers.

Then, move on to tip number two, which is seeing who in your existing network may know or have connections to those managers or someone in that list of companies.

“The final tip would be to not be afraid of being proactive in your job search and making contact or reaching out or getting an introduction to a hiring manager at your dream company or companies on your target list,” said Johnston. “It only takes one conversation to change the entire trajectory of your job search.”

Johnston’s in-depth course on navigating the hidden job market is available on LinkedIn. It is one of many courses being offered by job search companies to help millions of Americans find work again.