Fewer people will be working by the end of the decade — and employers need to brace for a “forever” labor shortage, experts say.
Fresh projections by the Bureau of Labor Statistics paint a stark picture, with the labor force participation rate expected to drop from 62.2% in 2022 to 60.4% in 2032. It was 63.3% before the Covid-19 pandemic and had generally been falling from a height of 67.4% in 2000. This is driven in large part by population shifts, as baby boomers retire and the number of Gen Z workers entering the labor force is smaller than previous generations, which economists and demographic watchers have long viewed as a slow-burning structural problem exacerbated by the pandemic.
“The projections released by the BLS confirm what economists and business owners are both seeing: what many believed to be a temporary, Covid-induced lack of workers is, in fact, a ‘forever’ labor shortage,” said Tom Bowen, an economist at payroll-and-benefits provider Gusto Inc.
