MacArthur Fellow and University of Minnesota Regents Professor Steven Ruggles discusses his PNAS paper projecting that net entry into the US labor force will drop below zero in the 2030s for the first time in American history, as baby boomers retire and smaller birth cohorts follow, creating strong upward wage pressure for young workers, the most favorable conditions for union organizing in half a century and a demographic shift large enough to partially offset even significant AI-driven job displacement.