Family caregivers are more valuable than ever to the economy, according to a new report by the AARP.
The study, titled Valuing the Invaluable, is the first effort in four years to calculate the level of unpaid work done by family members in caring for elderly or disabled relatives.
It finds that in 2013, 40 million family caregivers across the nation provided approximately 37 billion hours of care to adults with needs. The economic value of that is estimated at $470 billion - up from 450 billion four years earlier.
Jane Margesson is a spokesperson for the AARP's Maine State Office. "Here in Maine we're showing that, based on this report, we have close to 200,000 family caregivers in the state."
And those caregivers, says Margesson, are providing unpaid services valued at about $2.2 billion a year.