Chapter 04 · People & supply chainsHuman Rights & Social Sustainability
Care economy
Definition
The sector of economic activity — paid and unpaid, formal and informal — comprising direct care (nursing, childcare, eldercare, disability support) and indirect care (cooking, cleaning, fetching water and fuel) that sustains people's wellbeing. Performed disproportionately by women, it spans public services, markets, the non-profit sector and households.
References
Definition (paid/unpaid, direct/indirect); 381M care workers; 748M out of labour force; sector wage gaps.
16.4bn hours unpaid care daily; ~9% of GDP / US$11tn valuation; ILO country GDP range.
Overview
What it means
The ILO frames care work as the work that makes all other work possible — yet its scale is mostly invisible in GDP. Its landmark estimates: 381 million paid care workers globally (two-thirds women), 748 million people outside the labour force because of care responsibilities (over 90% of them women), and unpaid care work equivalent to 16.
4 billion hours per day — roughly 9% of global GDP, or about US$11 trillion at prevailing minimum wages. ILO country studies put unpaid care at 10–39% of GDP. Investment in care services is presented as a triple dividend: quality care, gender-equal employment, and higher labour-force participation.
How it is used
The concept drives ILO's 5R framework (recognise, reduce, redistribute unpaid care; reward, represent care workers), informs care-policy investment cases (childcare as infrastructure), and enters ESG social metrics on workforce wellbeing and gender equity.
Why it matters
Demographic ageing and gender-equality goals make the care economy one of the fastest-growing and most structurally undervalued parts of the world economy — central to any serious account of social sustainability.