Statistically, it should come as no surprise that the United States is in a tight labor market.
Baby boomers are retiring. And fast.
The COVID-19 pandemic started the wave. Rather than return to the office or classroom, those age 60-70 are staying home.
Of the 3.5 million people considered missing from the labor force, almost 2 million are of retirement age.
So why the surprise?
Recent history taught us otherwise.
Once the 2008 Great Recession was ushered out, baby boomers, then in their late 50s and 60s, flooded the job market because not only had their savings been eroded but they also weren’t ready to retire — a significant change from previous generations.
The difference meant an influx of almost 10 million workers of which a whopping 98 percent were 55 and older.
They’re not called baby boomers for nothing. The post-World War II spike in birth rates continues to represent a substantial portion of the world’s population. For the United States, baby boomers now number 71.6 million. Today’s millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996 and just starting careers and families, come in at 72.1 million.
Today’s employment scenario is very different from that of 12 years ago in other ways as well.
Besides baby boomers aging out, many are able to comfortably retire thanks to generous COVID-19 federal stimulus subsidies and a stock market that defied the odds.
It took three years for Americans to regain ground lost to the Great Recession. As for the response to COVID-19, the economy was back in gear only four months after the pandemic came ashore in February 2020.
So, no, those recent retirees aren’t coming back.
Which leaves us in a pickle.
Today, 1.7 jobs are available for every unemployed worker. Nationwide unemployment is 3.7 percent, a 50-year low.
