A significant discrepancy has formed over the past decade between the number of people needing care and the number of professional caregivers available. This was significantly exacerbated in 2023, with caregivers becoming more exhausted than ever.
Whether due to financial constraints or the struggling economy, almost 1 in 5 Americans who were providing care in 2023 were going unpaid. This equates to over 53 million people providing unpaid care to parents, spouses, friends, and disabled children, and this number continues to rise. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that these individuals lose more than $522 billion in annual income, whilst research from AARP predicts a $4.1 trillion loss in GDP by 2050.
In May 2022, it was reported that the size of the care economy in the United States was estimated at $6 trillion, yet it’s forecasted that the US will lose around $290 billion a year in GDP in 2024 and beyond if two major fault lines underpinning the collapsing care economy are not fixed: the lack of available professional caregivers to fill the increasing number of required positions and the departure of employees from the workforce to take on unpaid caregiving duties.
So, what is the state of caregiving not that we are in 2024? And are we finally going to recover from the turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic?