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Baby-boom bulge leaving the workforce
Ken Peacock, senior vice-president and chief economist of the Business Council of British Columbia, says demographics is teaming up with inflation to make for a unique time for labour.
The “baby-boom glut” is now leaving the workforce, says Peacock. That’s opening more opportunities for good jobs and higher wages for young workers.
For the first time the biggest age cohort in B.C. now consists of the 957,000 people who are 65 and older (only 15 per cent of whom are in the labour force).
“Over the decade the economy will absorb this. You won’t see the economy shut down,” adds Green. “But you’re going to have a period where real wages are going to rise.”
The business council hopes productivity will go up, too. Its economists believe wages elevate when workers, often through innovation and technology, produce more than they did previously.
