More Migrant Workers Needed to Offset Aging Population, Says IMF

The latest World Economic Outlook report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says developed nations such as the United States, Japan, and Britain need to admit more migrant workers or risk being inundated by their aging populations, reports The Guardian . The IMF warns working-age adults will need to support twice the number of seniors that they do now in the next several decades, straining welfare systems and wiping out as much as 3 percent of potential economic output by 2050. "Dramatic shifts in demographic structure projected in advanced economies could overwhelm the ability of policies to offset the forces of aging," the report says. "This underscores the need to rethink migration policies to boost labor supply in advanced economies." The IMF forecasts the current labor force participation rate could decline by up to 5.5 percent on average across advanced economies over the next 30 years without government intervention. Meanwhile, the U.K. government's Office for Budget Responsibility calculates that British healthcare spending will have to nearly double from 6.9 percent of gross domestic product in the early 2020s to 12.6 percent by the mid-2060s due to the aging populace. The IMF says governments could attempt to offset this through better policies to help people balance family life and work, while also urging more investment in education to get people into work and increase their odds of staying in a job longer.