WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — With millions of unemployed people across the country struggling to find work, it may seem unbelievable that there could be more jobs than workers to fill them in coming years, but a new report predicts exactly that.
A worker shortage could develop within 10 years as baby boomers reach traditional retirement age and there are too few replacement workers, according to the report published Monday by the MetLife Foundation and San Francisco-based Civic Ventures, a think tank focusing on baby boomers, work and social purpose.
"When the nation comes out of the current jobs recession — and this may take two to three years — we will begin to see spot shortages in labor markets," according to the report. "If the economy continues to improve, the spot shortages will become more general, and we will experience the shortages our research projects."
How did the report's authors arrive at this conclusion? First, government analysts expect 14.6 million new nonfarm payroll jobs will be created between 2008 and 2018. Including self-employed workers, family members working in family businesses and workers in farming the total hits 15.3 million new jobs. Read the Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment projections.