Labor Force Participation Projected to Decline

This week, Mercatus Center Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy charts Congressional Budget Office projections of the future United States labor force. Between 2011 and 2021, the proportion of the United States population working or seeking work will decline from 64.7% to 63%, a level not seen in this country since 1978. This shift is being driven by an aging and retiring population. As more and more Americans shift out of the workforce and into Medicare and Social Security, reform becomes increasingly imperative - to ensure that aging Americans are able to receive the benefits they were promised, these programs must be put in financial order.