. WASHINGTON Senior Biden economic officials have in recent weeks been peppered by complaints from restaurant groups, the construction industry and other businesses about their inability to find enough workers as the U.S. economy begins to recover from the pandemic. Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, has highlighted the matter as a potential area for concern in internal conversations with the president s economic brain trust, two people aware of internal discussions said. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has cautioned privately against overreacting to anecdotes of worker shortages, arguing more data and time is needed before assuming they reflect a genuine problem in the American economy, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
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Last week, the Census Bureau said that the last decade’s population growth was the slowest in generations. Also last week, President Joe Biden addressed Congress and laid out a wide-ranging, multi-trillion dollar economic agenda.
The two developments are tightly related.
For much of the United States, a demographic crisis and an economic crisis are two sides of the same coin. In many cities and regions, a shrinking population reduces the tax base, leading to underinvestment and deterioration of the physical environment and public services, causing even more jobs and people to go elsewhere.
Part of the aspiration of Bidenism a through-line in the pandemic rescue plan already enacted, and in major proposals for spending on infrastructure and family support is to break that cycle. Mayors and others focused on the development of places that have experienced economic and demographic languishing see a distinct opportunity to use federal money to fix problems long in the makin
EIG American Dynamism Series | The Case for Non-compete Reform
On April 29th, the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) hosted a webinar to discuss the Workforce Mobility Act [1], recently reintroduced bipartisan legislation from U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Todd Young (R-IN), that would limit the use of non-compete agreements that curtail worker mobility, stem wage growth, and stifle entrepreneurship and innovation.
Today, around 20 percent of American workers are covered by a non-compete agreement. Non-compete agreements have negative effects on all workers but are especially damaging for historically marginalized workers. When enforced, non-competes lower wages for female and nonwhite workers by twice as much as for white male workers.
US Population Growth Slows Down
April 29, 2021
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 11, 2021, file photo, people overlook the skyline of Los Angeles. California is losing a U.S. House seat for the first time, dropping its delegation from 53 to 52 members.
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The United States population has slowed to its lowest rate since the 1930s, the Census Bureau said Monday.
Every ten years, the Census Bureau counts the country’s people. The total U.S. population is now 331,449,281. It is 7.4 percent more than ten years ago, but the second slowest increase ever. Experts say the slow rate is due to an older population, less immigration and the effects of the Great Recession. The 2008 economic crisis led many young adults to wait to get married and have families, which slowed the birthrate.