Boomers and Gen X-ers: Your working world is in for major disruptions between now and 2030, according to a new report from the management consulting firm Bain & Co. “The depth and breadth of changes in the 2020s will set apart this transformation from many previous ones,” said the report, Labor 2030: The Collision of Demographics, Automation and Inequality.
But here’s the bigger surprise: Some of those disruptions will make it easier for people in the 50s and 60s to keep working, find jobs and start businesses, the Bain forecasters say. Now that’s a noteworthy trend.
Hanging on to older workers
The main reason for the good news, according to the Bain experts, is that the abundance of labor seen since the 1970s — due to boomers and women entering the workforce — is winding down. Bain foresees labor-force growth in the U.S. slowing to 0.4% a year in the 2020s. With workers in shorter supply, the Bain analysts say, employers will be eager to hang on to the ones they have and entice applicants, including older ones, to join them.
“Baby boomers will remain an important pool of talent through 2030, when the youngest cohort of that generation will only be 66,” the report said. This view echoed what I heard last May when I asked futurists Katherine LY Green, of Green Consulting Group, and John Mahaffie and Jennifer Jarratt, founders of Leading Futurists, what they expected for older workers in the coming decades.
Companies looking to innovate and scale within their businesses “will often find that skill among workers who’ve been around the place awhile,” said Andrew Schwedel, a partner in Bain & Co.’s New York office and head of the firm’s Macro Trends Group, which published the study.