U.S. Economy Will Be in Trouble If Boomers Don't Come Back to Work

The question on the minds of American workers in April will be when can we turn the economy back on. The underlying assumption in that question is that there will come a point when we can re-create the economy we had before the coronavirus forced the closing of large parts of the country. Although some things will go back to the way they were, not everything will. For older workers who have been staying on the job for longer amid the strong labor market over the past few years, bouncing back from being laid off may be difficult or impossible. That might mean a smaller labor pool for the broader economy that will leave a mark for years to come.

Older workers have been one of the reasons job growth has remained so robust during the past few years. From the end of 2016 through February, employment among people between the ages of 25 and 54 increased by 3 million. For workers older than 55 that total was slightly higher, or 3.1 million. This isn't because workers older than 55 had been getting hired at a rapid rate, but rather that lots of workers were turning 55 and weren't retiring as quickly as some forecasts predicted. Getting older workers to take jobs or stay in the labor force for longer has been a key reason Japan has been able to stave off economic decline as its population ages and shrinks.