Starting next year 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65.
At some point in the future we will have a labor shortage.
There will never be a labor shortage. It is impossible. What would a labor shortage even look like in real terms of problems it would generate. As far as I can tell, the more jobs available with fewer workers to fill the slots the better the pay and overall economy is going to be....
Simply put it's the theory of supply and demand. Yes, IMO there will be a bit of a labor shoratge but probably not as bad as some make out. But you're 100% correct that companies will increase their pay and benefits in order to attract workers that will become more scarce. But that could also lead to an inflation issue that could develop as a result of that increased pay and benefits.
A lot of variables have been predicated on the Baby Boomers. That is the biggest reason for the predicted shortages in SS. As the baby boomers die off the ratio of workers to retirees will again be more favorable toward being more self sustaining.
Yes, there are more complexities but I fail to see there ever being a problem with a smaller labor pool. The issue of grater retirees to laborers is another story but the OP did not mention anything about the problems SS and Medicare is going to go through. That is another story.
As I said before, a labor 'shortage' means nothing. In that scenario, we would have a far better economy.