Why America Has a Long-Term Labor Crisis, in Six Charts

Tags

Top Highlights

• Why America Has a Long-Term Labor Crisis

• It is a storm that has been brewing for decades, f

• baby boomer retirements, low birthrates, shifting immigration policies and changing worker preferences is leaving U.S. employers with too few workers to fill job openings.

• “It is a talent supply chain and you have to think about it that way

• , except in this case, talent has a choice,”

• The baby boomers were the largest generation of Americans, with 76 million children born between 1946 and 1964. They currently range in age from 58 to 77. By the end of 2028, even the youngest living baby boomers will have reached the average retirement age of approximately 64.

• The next largest generation, millennials, numbered 62 million births in the U.S. from 1981 to 1996, per the Pew Research Center, but has grown

• The U.S. birthrate—the number of births per 1,000 people—has been falling for decades, declining by about half since the 1960s.

• The overall participation rate is expected to drop to 60.4% in 2032, according to the Labor Department,

• Reshoring—bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.—is gathering momentum, backed by billions of dollars in government subsidies.

• Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT could help, but the technology is too new to know exactly where large language models can be reliably applied in business or work settings.

• As a general rule, an economy is able to grow about as quickly as its workforce expands,