So, with the first of the baby boomers now older than 60, and many more of this generation right behind them, we know that the shifting age distribution of the population has begun to have, and will continue to have, a direct impact on the supply of labour in the economy, and thus, on the growth of our economy's potential output.
Of course, we cannot directly measure how much labour Canadians want to supply to the economy. We have to infer this measure by looking at actual participation rates and the hours actually worked each week. But these two variables tend to fluctuate with the ups and downs of the economic cycle.