6.2 – Labour markets

Bring It Home

Baby Boomers Come of Age

The Census Bureau reports that as of 2013, 20% of the U.S. population was over 60 years old, which means that almost 63 million people are reaching an age when they will need increased medical care.

The baby boomer population, the group born between 1946 and 1964, is comprised of approximately 74 million people who have just reached retirement age. As this population grows older, they will be faced with common healthcare issues such as heart conditions, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s that may require hospitalization, long-term, or at-home nursing care. Aging baby boomers and advances in life-saving and life-extending technologies will increase the demand for healthcare and nursing. Additionally, the Affordable Care Act, which expands access to healthcare for millions of Americans, has further increase the demand, although with the election of Donald J. Trump, this increase may not be sustained.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, registered nursing jobs are expected to increase by 16% between 2014 and 2024. The median annual wage of $67,490 (in 2015) is also expected to increase. The BLS forecasts that 439,000 new nurses will be in demand by 2022.

These data tell us, as economists, that the market for healthcare professionals, and nurses in particular, will face several challenges. Our study of supply and demand will help us to analyze what might happen in the labour market for nursing and other healthcare professionals, as we will discuss in the second half of this case at the end of the chapter.

The theories of supply and demand do not apply just to markets for goods. They apply to any market, even markets for things we may not think of as goods and services like labour and financial services. Labour markets are markets for employees or jobs. Financial services markets are markets for saving or borrowing.

When we think about demand and supply curves in goods and services markets, it is easy to picture the demanders and suppliers: businesses produce the products and households buy them. Who are the demanders and suppliers in labour and financial service markets? In labour markets job seekers (individuals) are the suppliers of labour, while firms and other employers who hire labour are the demanders for labour. In financial markets, any individual or firm who saves contributes to the supply of money, and any who borrows (person, firm, or government) contributes to the demand for money.

As a college student, you most likely participate in both labour and financial markets. Employment is a fact of life for most college students: According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2013 40% of full-time college students and 76% of part-time college students were employed. Most college students are also heavily involved in financial markets, primarily as borrowers. Among full-time students, about half take out a loan to help finance their education each year, and those loans average about $6,000 per year. Many students also borrow for other expenses, like purchasing a car. As this chapter will illustrate, we can analyze labour markets and financial markets with the same tools we use to analyze demand and supply in the goods markets.