Informal Caregiving and Labor Market Participation
Summary
Informal caregiving, defined as unpaid support provided to family members or friends with physical, cognitive or functional limitations, plays a pivotal role in sustaining ageing societies worldwide. As populations grow older, the reliance on unpaid carers has increased, creating intricate trade-offs between time devoted to caregiving and participation in paid employment. Carers routinely sacrifice work hours or leave the labour force altogether, incurring opportunity costs that extend beyond immediate earnings to long-term pension entitlements and career prospects. The interrelation between caregiving intensity, gender and socioeconomic status further shapes these outcomes: women and lower-income individuals often bear a disproportionate burden, leading to reduced labour market attachment, elevated stress levels and adverse health consequences. Policy responses range from public long-term care insurance schemes and wage replacement to flexible working arrangements and digital support tools. A nuanced understanding of how caregiving responsibilities intersect with employment trajectories is essential to design interventions that preserve both carer well-being and economic productivity on a global scale.
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Informal Caregiving and Labor Market Participation publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in informal caregiving and labor market participation across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Informal caregiving: Unpaid assistance provided by family members or friends to individuals with health or functional needs.
Opportunity cost: The value of the best alternative use of time foregone when allocating hours to caregiving instead of paid work or leisure.
Labour market exit: The act of leaving the workforce, either temporarily or permanently, including retirement or unemployment.
Structural dynamic model: An econometric framework that simulates individual decisions over time—such as labour supply, retirement and caregiving—under institutional constraints.
References
- Informal caregiving and the allocation of time: implications for opportunity costs and measurement. Social Science & Medicine (2023).
- Long-run consequences of informal elderly care and implications of public long-term care insurance. Journal of Health Economics (2024).
- Informal Caregiving, Employment Status and Work Hours of the 50+ Population in Europe. De Economist (2018).
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