The Economic Impact of Formal Childcare in Travis County
We encourage you to take a moment and read this new report, commissioned by United Way and prepared by local economist Jon Hockenyos. We have known for sometime that investing in early childhood education was important to the future of our community, but this report gives us a whole new way of looking at the issue: an economic one.
Among the report’s findings are the following data:
Formal childcare had a gross revenue of $232.9 million in 2006, and employed more than 5,400 people (larger than the software industry).
Childcare facilitates success in other industries by allowing parents to participate fully in the labor force. Absent formal childcare, the equivalent of $242.9 million and 8,000 jobs would be lost.
When the ripple effects associated with each of the above are factored into the equation, the total impact is almost $2 billion in economic activity, $590.1 million in earnings, and over 20,000 jobs.
The report also explains the less quantifiable, more conceptual effects that childcare has on the Travis County economy, including the ability of employers to attract and retain quality employees, and parents’ ability to participate more fully in the labor force. In other words, childcare contributes massive amounts of money to our economy, and for working parents, it’s critical to their own professional security.