We asked our WorkingNation Advisory Board to share their thoughts on the most important issues and challenges facing the workforce and the labor market in 2024.

Brandon Busteed is an expert on workforce development and education and most recently served as president of Kaplan University Partners.

Here are his thoughts on The Future of Work 2024.

“The Human Pie in the U.S. is shrinking. We have 15% fewer 18-year-olds coming of age in the next five years along with an estimated 70 million baby boomer retirements in the same time frame. Birth rates and immigration rates are near all-time lows. Labor force participation rates are at all-time lows. And the result has been and will be sustained low rates of unemployment.

“This will become THE talent issue of the century. It will force all employers of all shapes and sizes and across all sectors to consider every single candidate for a job – regardless of their previous training or education. This, in turn, means that we will be engaged in a constant process of learning, upskilling, and reskilling in our places of work. And it will mean that our places of learning will become 100% work-integrated.

“The future won’t distinguish between places of learning and places and work because they will be one and the same.”

Read more from our WorkingNation Advisory Board members on The Future of Work 2024.