Will There Really be a Labor Shortage?

A number of studies have been released in recent years from prestigious think-tanks, such as the Hudson Institute, and leading consulting firms, such as Wyatt and McKinsey, predicting severe labor market shortages for the U.S. economy in the decades ahead. Some go as far as to suggest that the U.S. economy will experience widespread job vacancies that cannot be filled because of a shortfall of workers. In these arguments, the shortfall is typically blamed on the small size of the "baby bust" cohort, the generation that has followed the baby boomers into the labor market.