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Montgomery County panel says labor-force growth lags while housing and childcare strain residents
Summary
County planning and MCEDC told the Economic Development Committee that Montgomery County’s labor force has slowed—notably a loss of 25–34-year-olds—and that rising home prices, elevated office vacancies and childcare shortfalls are constraining the local economy.
County planners and the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation told the county’s Economic Development Committee that a combination of slowed labor-force growth, high housing costs and persistent childcare gaps is undermining the county’s ability to attract and retain workers.
The committee heard that Montgomery County’s unemployment rate stood at 2.4% while the office-vacancy rate rose to 18.5% year over year. "The unemployment rate is 2.4%," MCEDC Vice President Frankie Clogston said during her overview of the quarterly indicators. Clogston also flagged a jump in median home price, which the presenters said rose from about $554,000 to $615,000 (an increase of roughly 11%).
Planning staff told the committee that the county’s labor force began flattening after 2013 and declined before the pandemic, with the 25–34 age group especially affected. "We lost about 12,000 of those," the planning presenter stated, noting the county trails national trends on young-adult labor-force participation. Council members and staff concluded that housing affordability—particularly a shortage of lower-cost "starter" options—and amenities for young professionals are central drivers of the decline.
Presenters also described the housing market’s internal segmentation: attached units such as townhomes and condos provide comparatively lower-cost ownership entry points, while detached single-family prices remain substantially higher. Planning noted condo sales include many transactions under $400,000 but warned condominium owners face rising association fees and delayed maintenance backlogs.
On childcare, planners said private-sector childcare employment has not recovered to pre-pandemic peaks. The county still has a substantial cohort of young children whose caretaking needs imply demand for childcare, but childcare-worker wages have not kept pace with inflation and remain near 40% of area median income. "There's an economic argument for childcare, but there's also a social one," the planning presenter said.
Why it matters: council members pressed for policy responses tied to the FY26 budget and signaled support for targeted measures to increase supply of affordable, attached housing and strengthen childcare capacity. The committee also asked staff to return more granular data on entrepreneurship trends and potential incentives to retain and attract workers.
Next steps: committee members asked planning and MCEDC for follow-up materials—region-by-region housing analyses, entrepreneurship data and targeted policy options—to inform a package the chair said would be discussed at a public hearing scheduled in committee materials.
Sources: Presentations and Q&A at the Montgomery County Economic Development Committee work session, as delivered to the committee by county planning staff and MCEDC representatives.
