Over the last decade, the U.S. fertility rate
has dropped to its lowest point in history. Economists expected a
short decline in the number of births during the Great Recession, but they
believed we would start making kids again once the economy recovered. That
hasn't happened.
Modern economists analyzed data and found when a recession
hits, people scale back on baby making just as they scale back spending on
other consumer durables.
They’ve discovered, for the first time in American
history, women aged 30-34 have the highest fertility rate of all age brackets.
Younger women are having far fewer unintended pregnancies, accounting for about
a third of the overall decline in births since 2007. Economists calculate that
the huge decline in unintended births saves taxpayers at least $2.4 billion per
year. But keep in mind, about 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 each day. The
increase in the number of Baby Boomers retiring each day is expected to have a
direct impact on the number of available workers in the U.S. workforce as the
Social Security program is primarily funded by payroll taxes assessed on wages
in the United States. The increasing number of Baby Boomers leaving the
workplace along with historically low U.S. birth rates could very well impact
the future of the Social Security program.
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