December 08, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Labor force projected at 162.1 million by 2014

The civilian labor force is projected to increase by 14.7 million over the 2004-14 decade, reaching 162.1 million by 2014. This 10 percent increase is smaller than the 12.5-percent increase of 1994-2004.

[Chart data—TXT]

The projected labor force growth will be affected by the aging of the baby-boom generation—persons born between 1946 and 1964. The labor force will continue to age, with the number of workers in the 55-and-older group projected to grow by 49.1 percent, nearly 5 times the growth projected for the overall labor force. 

Over the 2004-14 period, the number of women in the labor force is projected to grow by 10.9 percent, faster than the 9.1-percent growth projected for men. As a result, women's share of the labor force is expected to increase from 46.4 percent in 2004 to 46.8 percent by 2014.

These projections are products of the Economic and Employment Projections program. More detailed information on the 2004-14 projections appears in five articles in the November 2005 issue of the Monthly Labor Review.