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Could Teacher Safety Be a Bottleneck to Getting America Back to Work?

Classrooms are high-risk environments. If teacher safety concerns keep schools or day cares closed, that could prevent workers with children from returning in other industries, too.

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Could Teacher Safety Be a Bottleneck to Getting America Back to Work?
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US worker concerns about returning to their work sites vary by sector, but one key demographic isn’t comfortable with the idea: teachers. A recent Bain survey of US workers (conducted April 18–25) found that more than 60% of educational professionals would not be comfortable returning to the classroom if allowed to tomorrow.

And their concerns could be justified: Teachers ranked their workplaces as much higher risk environments than workers in other sectors. If those risks and concerns aren't addressed, that could affect the availability of workers in other industries, as 40% of US families have children under the age of 18.

The next highest level of discomfort was for office workers, 37% of whom were not comfortable returning to work, even though they rated their workplaces as relatively low risk.

More from the survey:

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