Hi ,

All you need to do is take one look at employment and unemployment rates and it’s quite obvious we are living in Never Normal times. The old rules governing recession, rising interest rates, and pesky inflation don’t seem to apply to labor markets these days. In this 2-minute video, Future of Work, I share all you need to know about why ignoring shifting demographics is a dire miscalculation many business leaders are making and why everyone must embrace the consequences of a shrinking U.S. working-age population.

WATCH!

First, I dive into how the baby boomer generation certainly left its mark on history, and one of their most significant contributions was creating an unprecedented surge in the working-age population in the 1960s and 1970s. But you probably knew that! During this time, 2.3 million new workers joined the labor market each year, which further increased due to robust immigration.

However, things changed in the 1980s and 1990s when growth began to slow down, with only 1.3 million workers being added annually. In case you missed the news, Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) was about half the size of the Boomer generation.

But growth resumed in the 2000s, with a surge in the Millennial population. Around two million new workers joined the labor market, making it the largest generation in history.

But now we're welcoming Gen Z and soon Generation Alpha to the workplace. Well, sort of. If you're expecting a big rush of workers knocking on your door in the upcoming years, you might want to think again.

In the past decade, we've witnessed a significant decline in growth due to falling fertility rates and shifting immigration policies. The working-age population grew by under 500,000 in 2020, and it's expected to continue. In case you missed the comparison, that's less than one-quarter the number of new workers entering the workplace than employers have experienced in the last 60 years!

Combine this trend with the imminent exodus of the aging and retiring baby boomer population, and the labor shortage situation is growing worse day by day.

So what can employers and organizations do to address this challenge? Well, you can start by scheduling me for your next business meeting or conference because it's a problem that requires a multi-faceted solution that goes beyond recruitment and retention.

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Reskilling and UpSkilling Will Fail Unless You Do This Too!

Here's an excerpt from my presentation at CAHR2023 last week.

WATCH - ONLY 40 SECONDS!

It's not enough to simply reskill and upskill employees; they must be taught how to unlearn old behaviors before they will truly adopt new ones. The journey of learning new skills inherently includes making mistakes. Without a growth mindset and an encouraging growth culture, employees will shy away from practicing new skills and unlearning the old ones. Only by building growth mindsets and being comfortable with trying new things will employees improve and grow professionally.

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Don't Let the SHIFT Hit Your Plans,