Fed Survey Shows Caregiving Challenges Affecting Labor Market

Excerpt from: Fed Survey Shows Caregiving Challenges Affecting Labor Market
By Matthew Nestler, PhD
Senior Economist at KPMG
Published June 24, 2025

Workers’ caregiving responsibilities are continuing to affect the economy. Around one-quarter of prime-age adults (those aged 25 to 54) did not have a paid job last September, according to data from the Federal Reserve’s 2024 Survey of Household Economics and Decision Making (SHED), from its Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 report.

4% of prime-age adults selected “childcare” as the reason why they were not working; that translates to 5.1 million people. 3% chose the eldercare category of “caregiving for an elderly, disabled, or sick adult”; that corresponds to 3.9 million people.

Women are disproportionately impacted. 6% of women selected “childcare” compared to only 1% of men. (See Chart 1.) Twice as many women chose “caregiving for an elderly, disabled, or sick adult” (4% vs. 2%). Women were also more likely than men to select “other family and personal obligations” (9% vs. 4%).

You can read Dr. Nestler’s full article, posted on LinkedIn, here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fed-survey-shows-caregiving-challenges-affecting-matthew-nestler-phd-firdc

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