Benefits of Child Care

12/15/2009

It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...
Khaled Hosseini, Afghan-American Author

A major new study on the economics of early learning found that investing in childcare provides the greatest economic benefit of all sectors of the Canadian economy. This study, reported on the CUPE website found that...

Investing $1 million in childcare would create 40 jobs: at least 43% more jobs than the next highest industry and four times the number of jobs generated by $1 million in construction spending.
Every dollar invested in childcare increases the economy’s output (GDP) by $2.30. This is one of the highest GDP impacts of all major sectors.

The study, led by well-respected economist Robert Fairholm, also analyzed a number of other social and economic impacts of childcare and estimated the level and impact of workforce shortages of childcare workers. Some of these other findings are:

Positive child outcomes and benefits are strongly related to the quality of the childcare service. However, parents have a difficult time judging quality. This points to the need for well-regulated publicly-delivered childcare services.
Low rates of pay and poor working conditions have led to high turnover among childcare providers. This has contributed to immediate workforce shortages of childcare workers averaging over 5,000 per year in recent years.
The social benefits — and the government revenues — from more childcare workers are greater than both the costs of training and current childcare subsidy levels.
The net national economic cost of these immediate shortages is estimated at over $140 million for the period from 2001 to 2007. The shortage of childcare workers also held back parents from entering the workforce. In total, it meant a loss of almost 50,000 person years of employment for childcare workers and parents during this period.

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