THE CHILD CARE INDUSTRY DIRECTLY IMPACTS THE NEW HANOVER COUNTY ECONOMY BY $194 MILLION PER YEAR

Without even including the "ripple" effect of financial revenues, the child care industry in New Hanover County contributes $194 million in gross receipts to the local economy per year. This data, released June 16, 2004 by the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce and Smart Start of New Hanover county, is taken from a study funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and performed by the National Economic Development & Law Center.

Beyond the annual revenues, licensed and regulated child care supports the employment of 783 New Hanover County taxpayers and educates over 4200 of our children each year. Over 56% of all New Hanover County families that have children have both parents in the workforce. For single parent homes the over 73% of those parents are in the workforce. The working parents who use child care in New Hanover County earn $162 million per year and pay more than $47.6 million in local, state and federal taxes.

"The findings ... demonstrate the importance of accessible high quality care to North Carolina’s economic development future," said NEDLC Vice-President, Carolyn D. Hayden. "In measuring the economic impact of the industry, NEDLC takes a conservative approach to its research, assessing direct efforts without using industry linkages, or multipliers. What we found was that the direct efforts, on their own, were very impressive," she added.

The study, which was the first of its kind in North Carolina, was performed by the National Economic Development and Law Center (NEDLC) and was paid for by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Researchers from NEDLC assessed the direct and indirect impact the child care industry has on North Carolina’s economy. The study examined licensed and regulated care across the state. Child care that is legal but is not licensed was not included in the study.