Job growth expected to slow sharply over the next decade, Labor Department says

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The pace of job gains over the next decade will slow considerably amid a sharp decline in the active labor force and an aging population, according to Labor Department projections released Tuesday.

From the period of 2020-29, the economy is expected to add a net 6 million new jobs, an annual growth rate of just 0.4%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates.

That compares with the 1.3% annual rate during the 2009-19 period, which got a boost from the Great Recession recovery that started in mid-2009 and ended up being the longest expansion in U.S. history before it ended in February of this year.

The slow growth rate also does not include the impacts of the corona virus pandemics, which cost the economy more than 25 million jobs initially before employees were brought back to work as restrictions eased to combat Covid-19. Some 16.3 million workers remained unemployed as of July, nearly 11 million more than the pre-pandemic level, according to the Labor Department.