The Baby Boom Generation

The children born during that boom are called the baby boom generation, which is by far the largest generation in American history, nearly one third of the total U.S. population today. By the sheer force of their numbers they have demanded a response from the nation at every stage of their life.

When they were children in the 1950's, the U.S. became child-oriented. New elementary schools were built in the 1950's to educate them. The new high schools in the 1960's and new colleges in the 1960's and 1970's. Today, in 1982, the baby-boom generation is between the ages of 20 and 35 years old.

In the last decade, during the 1970's we had a larger increase of labor force than we had during the preceding 30 years. Productivity, however, was quite low. It was because we had so many young and inexperienced workers coming into the labor force.

This generation that was twice as likely as their parents' generation to go to college discovered after graduation that they were twice as likely as their parents' generation to have trouble finding a job.