The U.S. economy has a love-hate relationship with its aging population. In the long term, an older population is a headache: It means a shrinking labor pool leading to slower growth, and increased social care costs.
On the other hand, the United States’s older generations are the ones—directly or indirectly—keeping the economy out of a recession at the present moment.
Take the labor market. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 97% of net private-sector job creation in 2025 was in health care and social assistance. January’s jobs report was much the same: Of the 130,000 jobs the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the economy added in the first month of 2026, 82,000 were in health care.
There’s also the matter of spending. As well as being key consumers, baby boomers are the wealthiest generation in history. People age 55 and over own 73% of the nation’s entire wealth, and 31% of U.S. wealth is owned by people age 70 or older, according to Fed data. And where is all that wealth being held? The eye-watering sums being funneled into AI capital expenditures had to come from someone.
Boomers—particularly wealthy older people—are “driving the train” when it comes to the economy right now, economists told Fortune. If boomers sneeze, the rest of the economy catches a cold. It’s not a comfortable balance to sit in.
