America is not producing many babies, and this lull is likely to last for years. This shift is poised to ripple throughout the U.S. economy and will impact everything from hospitals and physician practices to public sector programs and the future labor market.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the number of births in the U.S. has edged up modestly since two thousand and thirteen. This interrupted a period of sharp declines in child bearing traceable to the recession that began in 2007.
But behind the recent good news on child bearing are more worrisome indications suggesting that America may not soon return to its pre-recession average of approximately two babies for every adult woman. Many demographers have downgraded their forecasts for future births because the post recession baby boom has been smaller than anticipated.
Those forecasting births tend to rely on measures like unemployment rates and consumer confidence. There were about four million babies born in the U.S. last year and the total fertility rate, which is a snapshot that measures the number of births the average woman will have on her lifetime, was a bit less than one point nine.
