The child care crisis is costing the economy $122 billion a year, new study finds – and it's not just hurting families, businesses and taxpayers are taking a hit

When parents can't find adequate child care, they might miss work, get fired or choose to leave the workforce entirely — all of which not only affects how much money families earn, but costs businesses and taxpayers. And the situation has gotten worse in recent years. According to the study from ReadyNation, the economy is losing out on an estimated $122 billion a year.

The report found that not having child care — or enough child care — costs individual parents more than $5,500 a year, or more than $78 billion in total. And businesses lose $1,640 on average for each working parent due to lost revenue and hiring costs because of insufficient child care, totaling $23 billion annually. And the government loses, too — about $21 billion in lost income and sales tax revenues a year, or $1,470 less per working parent because parents without enough child care earn less and therefore consume less in their communities. 

"We did this four years ago, and it's bad. We did it now and it's worse, and absent any real policy solutions to the child care crisis, this is just going to go on and on," said Sandra Bishop, chief research officer for the bipartisan nonprofit Council for a Stronger America, which includes three organizations including ReadyNation.