With an ageing population and an increasing number of elderly people suffering from chronic diseases, the demand for elderly care in Canada is set to increase considerably over the next few decades. Much of this care is provided on an informal and unpaid basis. We are witnessing the phenomenon of the ‘sandwich generation’, which has to respond to demands for care from young children and elderly parents. Designing public policies to support family carers requires a clear understanding of the realities faced by these people. 

In this study, the authors analyse the links between the provision of informal care to older people and the labour market participation of carers using data from the Longitudinal and International Adult Survey (ELIA) for the period 2014 to 2018. They also examine the importance of the ‘economic burdens’ associated with informal caregiving as well as the influence of general labour market conditions on informal caregiving. Informal carers provide an average of 12.3 hours of care per week. Women provide 34% more hours of care than men. One in five carers say they suffer an ‘economic burden’ as a result of their caregiving in the sense that caregiving has had a negative impact on their finances, their work or both.