Issue Mitigating labour force shrinkage through women, older workers and foreign labour

Summary

Alongside productivity reform, the authors call for continued policy efforts to cushion the fall in labour supply caused by demographic change. Women's participation drops during childbirth and child-rearing years, so conditions that allow work and family to be combined would support female employment and ease the decline in births. Today's rapidly growing older population is healthier and more cognitively able than earlier generations. This justifies building an institutional basis, such as re-employment after retirement, that lengthens working lives. Accepting foreign workers is presented as a further way to soften the negative effect of a shrinking working-age population.