Economic Impact of Child Care

The Economic Impact of Child Care within States

Parents need child care in order to obtain and retain a job. Children need a safe place to be that promotes their healthy development while their parents are working. The child care industry is an important economic driver within states. In fact, throughout the country, child care has an economic impact of $99.3 billion.

The Committee for Economic Development (CED) released a report, "Child Care in State Economies: 2019 Update" on January 31, 2019. There are 674,332 child care programs (centers and home-based sole proprietors) throughout the United States with revenue of $47.2 billion, employing 1.5 million workers. The spillover impact of these programs (purchases of goods and services) generates an additional $52.1 billion in local economies. With regard to employment, beyond direct jobs within the industry, an additional 507,089 jobs are supported within communities leading to an overall jobs impact of 2 million workers.

The Economic Role of Paid Child Care in the U.S. Report Series examines the use of paid child care and labor force participation of mothers through a four-part series.

The first report details who uses paid child care, what percent of household income is spent on child care for those families who pay for it, and what characteristics are associated with families who pay for child care (e.g., maternal labor force participation, reported expenditures for child care, household income, level of education, and age of children in paid care) across states.

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Committee for Economic Development (CED) Paid Child Care Usage Series (2022)

Committee for Economic Development (CED) Child Care in State Economies (2019)

Committee for Economic Development (CED) Child Care in the States (2024 Update)