Achieving a More Integrated America

An unusual opportunity lies ahead to advance the racial integration of American society. The exodus of the baby boomers from the labor market will provide the opening. This group, born between 1946 and 1964, is disproportionately white and highly educated and occupies a huge patch of the most rewarding terrain in the labor market. (They make up, for example, about 70 percent of engineering managers and two-thirds of registered nurses.) As the baby boomers leave the work force between now and the early 2030s, when the youngest of them turn seventy, the young Americans entering the labor market will be much more diverse in ethno-racial terms than the old Americans exiting it.