Millennials versus Gen Ziers and the future of the U.S. workforce. I'm David Brancaccio. We'll get the big reports on hiring and unemployment on Friday. This will cover December. Already in hand, a government survey of help-wanted postings. This was for the month earlier, November, and it showed strength with an unexpected jump in job openings, data that

reinforced the case that the U.S. economy is so resilient that interest rates will stay higher

for longer.

Now, month-to-month data is one thing, but let's take a longer, call it generational view,

with Lauren Seidel Baker, an economist at ITR economics out of New Hampshire.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Great to be here. Demographics will

define the health of the labor market going forward. This is about generations. Share with me some of

your thinking on that. So as we look at the trends in the labor market, it's hard to define balance.

We currently have less than one unemployed worker for each

available job opening. So as I look at what could relieve that trend, where could additional

labor numbers come from? The obvious answer is, well, if we had more babies 20 years ago,

there would be now more individuals aging into the labor force. And if I look at the

current generation, Gen Z, they're the ones who are just now exiting schools, starting to get those

first jobs. They're actually a smaller generation even than the millennials had been. So they're certainly

not of sufficient demographic size to be replacing all of these aging baby boomers who are now

starting to finally retire. All right. That could help people who are looking for jobs,

looking for raises if you're on the employer side. It means you ought to get cracking and bring

some people on board and keep them, I guess. Absolutely. And we do see firms doing that.

Now, 2024 was a little bit of a slower year in some sectors like manufacturing, like the industrial economy.

But we did see firms really respond to this tightness in labor availability.

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