--- title: The Economy is Improving, but May Face a New Speed Limit description: The recession is gradually ending, but we're about to enter a world where fewer and fewer people work. authors: - name: Jacob Davidson url: https://money.com/author/jacob-davidson/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 106 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/JakeD former_staff: true published: '2014-08-29T19:44:00.000Z' modified: '2014-08-29T19:44:00.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - baby boom - Economy - Employment - Jobs - labor force participation rate - Recession word_count: 320 canonical: https://money.com/boomers-new-economic-speed-limit/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![empty cubicles](https://img.money.com/2014/08/140829_em_lessworking1.jpg) *Get ready for Boomers to leave the work force.* While it might not feel like it yet, the economy is getting better. On Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis [announced](http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm) the U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter of this year. Here's the thing, though. Even as employers add jobs, we're about to enter an era with the lowest percentage of working Americans since 1973. Below is a Congressional Budget Office projection, from [a new set of charts they've released here](http://www.cbo.gov/publication/45672), showing the labor force participation rate—the number of people working or looking for a job—through the year 2024. As you can see, despite the economic recovery, it has a distinctly downward trend. ![Screen Shot 2014-08-29 at 12.06.20 PM](https://img.money.com/2014/08/screen-shot-2014-08-29-at-12-06-20-pm1.png) Why doesn't a better economic climate mean more workers? The boomers, [largest generation in American history](http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/06/us/baby-boomer-generation-fast-facts/), is on the cusp of retirement, and will soon begin to drop out of the workforce in even greater numbers. Over time, this will have an dampening effect on the economy—though by how much is [disputed](http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/04/11/will-aging-baby-boomers-drag-down-u-s-growth/). The CBO predicts that GDP growth will average around 2.2% per year, noticeably less than the growth we got used to in the 1980s and 1990s. Another way to visualize the change is something called the dependency ratio, which measures the proportion of the population that aren't of working age (below 18 or over over 65). As FiveThirtyEight's [Ben Casselman points out](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-baby-boomers-retirement-means-for-the-u-s-economy/), that number is about to increase from 59% in 2010 to 75% in 2030. ![Screen Shot 2014-08-29 at 12.05.20 PM](https://img.money.com/2014/08/screen-shot-2014-08-29-at-12-05-20-pm1.png) *Source: U.S. Census.* As you'll notice from the above chart, we've been a demographically fortunate nation of late, but we're about to lose that tailwind. On the other hand, this country has faced big demographic changes before: Look the at the jump in the dependency ratio from the 1950s to the 1960s. Back then, an increasingly prosperous nation spent part of its wealth on kids. Those kids grew up and made the economy even larger, and soon we'll have to spend part of that prosperity on their retirement. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/boomers-new-economic-speed-limit/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Baby Boomers", "item": "https://money.com/baby-boomers/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Economy is Improving, but May Face a New Speed Limit" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/boomers-new-economic-speed-limit/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/boomers-new-economic-speed-limit/", "name": "The Economy is Improving, but May Face a New Speed Limit", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2014-08-29T19:44:00.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/boomers-new-economic-speed-limit/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/boomers-new-economic-speed-limit/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2014-08-29T19:44:00.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The Economy is Improving, but May Face a New Speed Limit", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/08/140829_em_lessworking1.jpg", "width": 4992, "height": 3328, "caption": "140829_EM_LessWorking" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/08/screen-shot-2014-08-29-at-12-06-20-pm1.png", "width": 800, "height": 292 }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/08/screen-shot-2014-08-29-at-12-05-20-pm1.png", "width": 800, "height": 294 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jacob Davidson", "url": "https://money.com/author/jacob-davidson/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/jacob-davidson/#author", "image": "https://money.com/content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/jake-davidson-2.jpg?crop=35px%2C18px%2C872px%2C872px&resize=640%2C640&quality=85&strip&ssl=1", "email": "jake.davidson@yoh.timeinc.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/JakeD" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2014-08-29T19:44:00.000Z", "description": "The recession is gradually ending, but we're about to enter a world where fewer and fewer people work.", "abstract": "The recession is gradually ending, but we're about to enter a world where fewer and fewer people work.", "@id": "https://money.com/boomers-new-economic-speed-limit/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2014-08-29T19:44:00.000Z", "wordCount": 320, "keywords": [ "baby boom", "Economy", "Employment", "Jobs", "labor force participation rate", "Recession" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Baby boomers", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers" ] } ] } ] } ```