Commentary: U.S. Economy Will Be in Trouble If Boomers Don't Come Back to Work

New River Investments portfolio manager Conor Sen writes in Bloomberg that the U.S. economy may not bounce back to pre-coronavirus levels if baby boomers do not return to work. "The risk is that this temporary phase of economic disruption will turn into permanent disruption for older workers," he warns. Recent jobless claims data reflects Congress' sluggish fiscal aid, with U.S. companies firing 3.28 million workers in just one week. Sen says employees age 55 and over comprise almost a quarter of the American workforce, and "if 7 million workers get laid off or furloughed as a result of this crisis and the impact is evenly distributed by age, that's 1.75 million displaced senior workers." He says it is imperative that older workers be allowed to retire on their own terms rather than be forced into it by pandemics or other crises. Furthermore, the potential absence of hundreds of thousands of workers once the current crisis passes drastically lowers the odds of an effective economic rebound. "For smaller businesses, in particular, missing a few key veteran people may be the difference between survival and failure," Sen stresses. He concludes that it behooves Congress to consider "incentives to keep older workers on the job or efforts to rehire them once this crisis passes."