Boomers as Retail Clerks Shows Why Greenspan Saw Low Growth Era - Bloomberg

Boomers as Retail Clerks Shows Why Greenspan Saw Low Growth Era - Bloomberg

As economists and regulators are beginning to recognize, global aging threatens to unleash a wave of aftershocks: chronically weak economic growth, a more volatile international economy and the risk of a new financial crisis triggered by innovative investments dubbed “death derivatives.”
Now, as the working-age share of the planet’s 7.2 billion people crests and slowly declines, generating accustomed economic growth will require many people to shelve dreams of idle bliss and labor into their eighth decade. Gray-haired retail clerks, burger flippers and home-care companions hint at a future awaiting millions.
By 2030, more than one of every five Americans will be at least 65 years old, up from about one in seven today. By 2056, those over 65 for the first time will outnumber those under 18, according to the Census Bureau.
“The labor supply is going to become stressed,” said George Magnus, senior economic adviser at UBS in London.