Conference Paper

The impact of demographic change on U. S. labor markets: discussion

Abstract: As its title indicates, the paper by Jane Little and Robert Triest deals with the impact of some upcoming demographic changes on the U. S. labor market. The two changes highlighted are the well-documented population aging and immigration. According to the paper, the challenges raised by these changes are rising and high old-age dependency ratios because of declining numbers of workers to retirees, and slower productivity growth, since migrants tend to have less education than the native-born. ; I would only have quibbles, not quarrels, with their clear and balanced description of these future demographic trends, which relies mainly on Census projections. On both immigration and population aging, however, I believe that better estimates are available than those of the Census. But these superior estimates would still project a future labor force much like the one foreseen in the Little/Triest paper.

Keywords: Economic conditions; Labor market; Demography;

Status: Published in Seismic shifts: the economic impact of demographic change

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Part of Series: Conference Series ; [Proceedings]

Publication Date: 2001

Volume: 46