Are We Entering a New Era of Job Destruction ?

Author Todd Harrison argues a new ear is upon us…..

“The change in thinking we’re going to undergo is shifting from a mindset of “we don’t have enough jobs for our citizens” to “we don’t have enough citizens for the amount of work we want to do.”

Sound crazy? Consider this: Since the end of the year 2000, according to a household survey, the number of U.S. workers age 45 or older has increased from 49.2 million to 63.1 million, an increase of 13.9 million.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. workers age 25 to 44 has fallen from 67.9 million to 61.1 million, a decrease of 6.8 million.

This phenomenon has been driven by a few factors. The “pig moving through the python” progression of the baby boomers, who on average turned 45 in the year 2000 and began moving from the 25-to-44 bucket to the 45+ bucket. The 2008 recession is delaying retirement for older people and delaying careers for millennials. And generally lower birth rates starting in the late 1960s are leading to fewer bodies replacing the baby boomers in the twenties and thirties age buckets….”