But in the long term later retirement counters the trend to slowing labour force growth caused by an ageing population, more years spent in college, and a levelling out of women's participation.
But the debt left by the boomers adds to the drag of slower labour-force growth.
In the longer term, the CBO thinks potential growth will be lower because of slower labour-force growth and because a bigger government debt will crowd out private investment.The CBO also expects low inflation.
Slower growth in the labour force means slower growth overall.
But that fall was more than accounted for by unexpectedly slow growth in the labour force; BLS increased its estimate of the number of Americans not in the labour force by nearly one million workers.The figures, on growth and hiring, have no doubt been influenced by awful winter weather.
This means that even as the growth in the labour force slows to less than a third of its current rate, less than half the growth in the labour force is likely to form part of the pool of labour from which nurses can be drawn to replace retiring nurses.
Growth in its labour force has slowed dramatically since the recession; in November it was only 1% larger than at the end of 2007, a period in which the working-age population grew by 5%.
A shrinking labour force implies a slower growth rate, future problems for financing public-sector pensions, and greater opposition to reform than in a more youthful country.
What it reflects, though, is an arithmetical calculation based on two numbers: the shrinking labour force just described; and the slow annual growth in productivity in the 1990s of about 2%, a whole percentage point less than in the 1980s.
Progress on this front, however, seems much too slow when compared with the speed at which the labour force is shrinking.If labour reforms and productivity do not keep pace with the demographic challenge, one way in which living standards will suffer is through a squeeze on the social-security system: a daunting prospect in the land of the rising debt ratio.
Between 2006 and 2026 the growth in the labour force aged 20 to 64 will slow from about 7.5percentnt every 5 years to about 2percentnt.
