Recent White House Executive Order to Bolster Care Infrastructure, Cites BCG Research

The US is calculated to lose about $290 billion per year in GDP in 2030 and beyond if the care crisis is not fixed.
The Executive Order proposes actions including improving job quality for caregivers.
56% of US workers have care responsibilities outside their full-time jobs, and 40 million of these caregivers rely on paid care—such as nannies, daycares, or nursing homes—in order to hold jobs.

In a fact sheet detailing President Biden’s Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers, the White House referenced data from a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report on the US care economy that calculated the US will lose about $290 billion per year in GDP in 2030 and beyond if the care crisis is not fixed.

The Executive Order proposes actions—including improving job quality for caregivers—consequences of which may impact the strength of the US workforce.

According to the BCG report, “Solving the $290 Billion Care Crisis,” about 56% of US workers—roughly 90 million people—have care responsibilities outside their full-time jobs. Approximately 40 million of these caregivers rely on paid care—such as nannies, daycares, or nursing homes—in order to hold jobs. Looking at these figures, BCG experts concluded there are two central aspects of the care economy that must be addressed to avoid an economic loss equivalent to losing half of the annual GDP growth projected from 2022–2023:

The lack of available workers to fill a dramatically increasing number of these hands-on jobs.
The departure of productive employees from the paid labor force to take on unpaid-care duties, whether they want to or not.

“I am proud that BCG’s research served as the data foundation for the White House’s Executive Actions on Child Care,” said Sharon Marcil, North America Chair, BCG. “While the broken care system is an issue that impacts all of us, this effort from the Biden Administration strengthens the probability of the US avoiding the projected $290 billion GDP loss in the year 2030. There is still more work that needs to be done, and BCG is committed to elevating this important topic.”

The $290 billion loss scenario rests on the following assumptions: Care jobs fill at the average rate since 2012, resulting in a care-worker shortfall of about 14% by 2030. About 20% of workers who can’t find adequate care leave the workforce to fill the care gap at home. BCG conducted the survey of more than 3,600 employed caregivers along with Dynata.

For more information, please visit www.bcg.com.