mayors report predicts economic slowdown

Even though new job growth is expected to average around 200,000 per month for the rest of the year, a new forecast is predicting a decline to 100,000 a month next year, and 70,000 the year after that.

That is the conclusion of a report issued by the U.S. Conference of Mayors that is also predicting a drop in the growth of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product to 2.0 percent from its current 2.8 percent.

The report, U.S. Metro Economies, was compiled by IHS Markit, which has offices in Houston and Los Angeles, and additionally says that due to the coming retirement of millions of Baby Boom generation workers, the growth of the nation’s working-age population will slow more than that of the overall population.

That exit of the Baby Boomers from the labor market means that the average growth rate of the national workforce, pegged at just under 1 percent since the mid-1980s, will drop to an annual rate of only 0.7 percent in coming decades.

“The bottom line is that our economy needs more and better trained workers now and into the future,” said Greg Fischer, the vice-president of the U.S Conference of Mayors and currently Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky.

In a statement, Fischer added: “This is a great opportunity to attract new people into the workforce, and to reskill and upskill current workers.”

By Garry Boulard