Former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi has sounded the alarm about the large number of baby boomers retiring, and the “catastrophe” it will have on the labor market.
Supply chains are struggling to return to normal as a result of the pandemic, and the labor market is under more pressure than it’s been in years. Many workers are reluctant to re-enter industries that put them at greater risk of contracting COVID, while others don’t want to return to the way things were after nearly two years of remote work. Virtually every industry, from retail to semiconductors, is under pressure.
According to Rensi, in an interview with Fox News, the problem is about to get significantly worse as a result of baby boomers — and their children — retiring en masse.
“If this continues the way it is, it’s going to be nothing but a greater and greater catastrophe,” Rensi said.
Rensi goes on to point out that the oldest baby boomers are 76, with the youngest being 58. The real problem, however, is that the oldest children of the oldest baby boomers are closing in on 56.
“So the retirement numbers are going to start to accelerate,” Rensi continued. “There’s going to be a lot of upward mobility because they are leaving the workforce, which is going to leave a shortage at the bottom end.”