With workforce and population growth both slowing, the US will need to make full use of its available talent if it is going to remain globally competitive and continue to deliver growing prosperity for American families. To help address this challenge, the Committee for Economic Development of the Conference Board has released a new policy brief, Growing the American Workforce: Bolstering Participation Is Critical for US Competitiveness and Economic Strength, aimed at increasing labor force participation and attachment in the near-term to help more Americans achieve their employment goals and contribute to the strength of the US workforce.

High labor force participation is a crucial part of achieving broadly shared economic growth. Jay Shambaugh, former Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors and one of the authors of the recent Hamilton Project strategy paper Labor Force Nonparticipation: Trends, Causes, and Policy Solutions, joins to discuss the evolution of, and impediments to, labor force participation since the turn of the century and potential remedies to help grow the American workforce.