The care economy unlocked

When we think about infrastructure, we picture highways, ports, and fibre-optic cables. We rarely picture a mother who leaves her job to care for her ageing parents, or a childcare worker looking after someone else’s children so that parent can go to work. Yet this “care economy” – the paid and unpaid work of looking after children, the elderly, and people with disabilities – is the invisible foundation on which everything else rests. In Malaysia, it is also one of our most underused economic assets.

Here is a startling number. If we put a price on the unpaid care work Malaysians do at home, it would be worth around RM379 billion a year – roughly one-fifth of our entire service sector. If it were a single industry, it would rank second only to manufacturing. But because it happens in kitchens and living rooms rather than factories and offices, it never appears in our national accounts.

A second number should worry us more. Over 3.1 million Malaysians are outside the labour force because of family obligations and housework. Ninety-eight per cent of them are women. Add those working part-time for the same reason, and you have 3.2 million people – a workforce larger than Singapore’s population – sidelined from the formal economy.

This is not a women’s issue. It is an economic one. The Khazanah Research Institute estimates that if these 3.2 million people could enter paid work, or move from part-time to full-time jobs, Malaysia would gain about RM77.2bil a year – nearly 5% of the GDP. Women’s labour force participation would jump from 56% to around 83%.

Care work is labour-intensive, difficult to automate, and rooted in local communities. And time is not on our side. Malaysia became an “ageing society” in 2020 and will become an “aged society” by 2044 – one of the fastest transitions in the region.

The number of Malaysians needing help with daily living is expected to double between 2020 and 2040. Meanwhile, the traditional three-generation household is shrinking. If we do not build a proper care system now, we will face a crisis later.

The good news is that Malaysia has started to move. The government has launched a Care Strategic Framework and Action Plan for 2026–2030, and there is talk of training 50,000 caregivers for the elderly by 2030. But talk is not funding. Plans are not childcare centres. Targets are not wages that attract people into care work.

What should we do? First, treat care as infrastructure. Just as we would not build a factory without roads, we should not expect parents to work without affordable, quality childcare. Subsidised childcare and employer-supported care arrangements would unlock the single biggest untapped labour pool.

Second, build the aged-care system before demand peaks. That means training and professionalising caregivers, setting wage standards, expanding home- and community-based care, and exploring insurance or co-financing so families are not bankrupted by care costs.

Third, support unpaid carers directly. A care allowance, flexible retraining programmes for those re-entering work, and stronger paternity leave would recognise the RM379bil already being produced for free.

Fourth, use technology wisely. Remote monitoring, telehealth, and assistive devices can help people age at home. But technology must support a care ecosystem, not replace one.

For too long, care has been treated as a private trouble – a woman’s problem, a family’s burden – rather than a public investment. The numbers tell a different story. Care is the infrastructure that makes work possible, the sector that creates jobs, and the investment that pays for itself. Malaysia’s greatest untapped economic resource is at home, waiting for us to take it seriously.

PROF DATUK DR AHMAD IBRAHIM

Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy Studies

International Institute of Science Diplomacy and Sustainability

UCSI University