Throughout this nation’s history, the economic labor supply has ever expanded. Above-replacement internal population growth coupled with new in-migrants have produced an abundant labor supply. Yet for the first time in our nation’s history, that labor abundance is endangered.

The nation’s aging Baby Boom generation will leave in its wake a legacy of not having generated a trailing labor pool of equal or greater magnitude. Couple this internal labor shortfall with a recent reduction in international in-migration and the nation finds itself on the cusp of an economic future with a diminished labor supply.

This decline dynamic is already in motion. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the tip of that iceberg. This demographic pivot is the basis for the nation’s current labor shortage. The pandemic’s agitating force exposed its emergence. More...