Bloomberg Surveillance · Friday, October 2, 2026
Despite a stable labor market, the US economy is experiencing growth north of 6% nominally, prompting questions about how this is sustainable without significant job creation. The low labor force growth due to reduced immigration and an aging workforce suggests that productivity gains must be driving this expansion, though AI adoption is not yet widespread enough to fully explain it.
“How can... this economy grow on a nominal basis north of 6% if really not creating that many new jobs? Is it better productivity?”
“Well, it's hard to see this being sustainable, particularly, I mean, we have such low labor force growth right now with the sharp reduction in immigration and aging of the workforce, people getting into retirement. It's just we're not growing a lot of workers. And typically, that's a big piece of supporting growth. So right now, if labor force is not growing... And the economy, the activity is growing. It's got to come from productivity.”
“But, like, you know, AI adoption is not widespread enough to explain all this.”