The rebuilding plan boldly included rezoning of land and improvements in the road network and parks. Moreover, in tandem with the rebuilding, a railroad network was developed that connected city areas with the suburbs, and progress was made in developing industrial and residential areas.
It is true that, even without the Great Recession, demographic forces would have led to some decline in the employment-to-population ratio since 2007. As the baby boom birth cohort – born between 1946 and 1964 – ages, the fraction of retirees in the population grows steadily.