HR Professional - February/March 2009 - (Page 57) I N T E RV I EW B Y M E R E D I T H B I R C H A L L- S P E N C E R UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, CONSULTANT AND AUTHOR OF BOOM, BUST & ECHO, DAVID K. FOOT FORECASTS GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS AND THEIR EFFECT ON CANADIAN WORKPLACES I n 1996, David Foot’s Boom, Bust & Echo took the world by storm and became a No. 1 national best-seller. It showed the vital role demographics play in understanding current and future trends i in both society and the economy. Foot brought to the public consciousness an important tool for f predicting future growth opportunities and shortfalls. Since then he has also published Boom, B Bust & Echo 2000 and Boom, Bust & Echo: 0 P Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the 21st Century. HR Professional spoke with Foot a about the impact demographics has on Canadian w workplaces and how it will affect the economy in the next 20 years. HRP: Is there any foundation to the fears of a massive labour shortage with the baby boomers retiring? D DF: Absolutely not. The idea of a labour market shortage came about during the 1990s when decreasing numbers of workers were coming into the workforce as a result of fewer people being b born in the late 1960s and 1970s, coupled with i impending boomer retirements. In Canada, the baby boom took place from 1947 to 1966. We know the average age of retirement IN A NUTSHELL Dr. Foot’s suggested list of places to find demographic information: Canada Population Projections for Canada, Provinces and Territories— Statistics Canada: www.statcan.ca/english/ads/91-520-XPB/index.htm World International Database—U.S. Department of Commerce: www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/ | Dynamic Population Pyramids: www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/pyramids.html | Population Reference Bureau: www.prb.org United States Population Projections—U.S. Census: www.census.gov United Kingdom Office for National Statistics: www.statistics.gov.uk Australia Australian Bureau of Statistics: www.abs.gov.au How can you have exploding university and college enrolments and a labour market shortage? You can’t. ‘‘ w w w.H RThoughtLeader. c om ’’ F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0 0 9 57 http://www.statcan.ca/english/ads/91-520-XPB/index.htm http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/ http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/pyramids.html http://www.prb.org http://www.census.gov http://www.statistics.gov.uk http://www.abs.gov.au http://www.HRThoughtLeader.com
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