An aging population and reduced immigration have led to a smaller pool of workers overall, according to the joint report, which analyzed employment trends across the United States, Canada, France, the U.K., Germany, Australia, Japan and China. As a result, staffing in certain industries will remain challenging for years to come.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
“In a moment like this, with so many headlines about layoffs, it perhaps feels a little bit weird to talk about long-term hiring challenges. But the reality is, it is precisely in moments like this when it’s easy to lose the trees for the forest,” said Aaron Terrazas, chief economist at Glassdoor. “It’s easy to conflate the near-term cyclical with long-term structural challenges in the labour market.
In particular, the effects of an aging workforce, already accelerated by the pandemic, are becoming more acute as the median baby boomer turns 65 this year. “The baby boomer retirement has been a slow moving train wreck for the past 20 years,” Terrazas said in an interview. “The retirement crisis, in the background before the pandemic, suddenly landed.”
Moreover, workforce-age populations are expected to shrink dramatically in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, France and China, with the report noting, “the stage is set for constant recruiting challenges.” Despite speculation earlier this year from economists that inflation would force some baby boomers back into the job market, it hasn’t held up, Terrazas said. A recent study from Indeed found that the rate of retirees re-entering the workforce had slowed, even as new retirements continued to increase.Article content