Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve economists concluded in a new research paper that much of the decline in labor force participation since 2007 is due to long-lasting "structural" causes such as the aging of the workforce.

Fed officials are debating how much slack is in the labor market. The paper released today casts doubt on whether continued economic stimulus would raise labor-force participation much above its current levels as demand increases.

"Demographics will likely continue to play a prominent role in determining the future path of the aggregate labor force participation rate," the economists said. "Indeed, on our estimates, the continued aging of the population alone will subtract 2.5 percentage points from the aggregate participation rate over the next ten years."

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.