During the 1990s the Employment and Training Institute surveyed central city Milwaukee workers to identify problems they face in finding and keeping employment. Two areas (child care and transportation) have been repeatedly identified as barriers to employment: child care and getting to jobs that are often in the outlying areas of the metro labor market. The Institute has studied these two issues indepth over the last 15 years to assist public policy makers in effectively addressing these barriers to employment. See also driver's license issues and transportation barriers to employment.

The following studies are available on child care needs and barriers to Milwaukee families:

• Child Care Selected by Families in the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program (2006).

• The Child Care Costs of Engaging the Welfare Population in Work: The Milwaukee Experience (2002).

• Addressing Barriers to Employment: Increasing Child Care Rates and the Rate Setting Process Under the Wisconsin Shares Program (May 2002).

• Barriers to Employment: Findings from the National Survey of America's Families for Milwaukee County Families with Preschool Children, 1997 and 1999 (May 2002).

• Barriers to Employment: NSAF Findings on Preschool Children, Mothers' Employment Status and Child Care Choices (May 2002).

• Impact of Welfare Reform on Child Care Subsidies in Milwaukee County, 1996-1999 (October 1999).

• Removing Barriers to Employment: The Child Care-Jobs Equation (May 1998).

• Child Care Needs of Low-Income Employmed Parents in Milwaukee County Under W-2 (July 1996)