Both business people and politicians are focused on the workforce. Business are trying every possible way to find the people they need so that their business and the national economy can grow. Some politicians are claiming credit for starving the supply of workforce in order to raise wages. When policies conflict with economic reality, something will break. We need to do something about the economic policies before they cause an economic crisis.  Both those policies and individual business decisions need to be based on a thorough understanding of what is happening to the demographics and the development of the workforce. That is why we are preparing a series of statistical studies on trends in the workforce. This brief steps back to look at general population trends.