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High Prevalence of
Employed Caregivers
Our society depends on caregiving help.
There are an estimated 53 million informal caregivers in the United States.
It is calculated that 61% of unpaid caregivers working full-time or part-time, putting the number of employed caregivers at an approximate 32.3 million in the United States. They represent a great diversity:
Care Need
Caregivers provide essential aid to those who experience:
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Debilitating injuries
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Decline with aging
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Devitalizing sickness
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Disabilities
Length of Care
They length of their care can be:
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Short-term
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Intermittent
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Long-term (including for the life of the one receiving care)
Care Type
Caregivers deliver essential and non-negotiable services, from feeding, bathing, dressing, transportation, and managing medicine to medical visits, financial management, health care coordination, emotional stabilization, supervision, and more.
Care Recipients
Caregivers have stepped in to provide for a spouse, parent, sibling, child, relative, or non-relative when the need becomes apparent, taking on the role through the gradual increase of responsibilities or immediately because of a drastic change in someone’s health.
Resources for Prevalence
1. Boumans, N. P., & Dorant, E. (2020). The relationships of job and family demands and job and family resources with family caregivers’ strain. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 35(2), 567–576. https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.12873 2. Greene, R., & Hunt, G. G. (2017). Who Is My Brother’s Keeper Now? Caregiving: Yours, Mine, and Ours. Generations, 41(2), 71–78. 3. Lerner, D. , Lavelle, T. , Adler, D. , Chow, W. , Chang, H. , Godar, S. & Rogers, W. (2020). A Population-Based Survey of the Workplace Costs for Caregivers of Persons With Treatment-Resistant Depression Compared With Other Health Conditions. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 62 (9), 746-756. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001957 4. Li, L., & Lee, Y. (2020). Employment adjustment and mental health of employed family caregivers in Canada. Aging & Mental Health, 24(12), 2073–2081. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2019.1647136 5. Roman, C., Bane, S., & Opthof, E. (2021). How Employers and States Can Support the Essential Workforce of Family Caregivers. American Journal of Health Promotion, 35(7), 1045–1047. https://doi.org/10.1177/08901171211030142g 6. Schempp, D. (2016). Caregiving 101: On being a caregiver. Caregiving 101: On Being a Caregiver - Family Caregiver Alliance. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://www.caregiver.org/resource/caregiving-101-being-caregiver/?gclid=CjwKCAiA1JGRBhBSEiwAxXblwQwr6mLJxpeKDaFBsCxLxX0cw3ITy0hkU1hLQ23HBs5bpMasNU7OHRoC8vQQAvD_BwE 7. Sowa, M., & McCann, R. (2021). No Budget for Caregiver Support? Employers Can Consider Linkages With DEI and Mental Health to Retain Talent. American Journal of Health Promotion, 35(7), 1029–1032. https://doi.org/10.1177/08901171211030142b 8. Tugend, A. (2021). Welcome to the Post-Pandemic Workplace. Kiplinger’s Retirement Report, 28(12), 20–21.