The Postwar Baby Boom

Social- Birth Rates Escalating Rapidly By the end of the 1950’s, more than 50 million babies were added to the nation’s population. The increasing birth rate eventually crested in 1957 and subsequently was followed by period of birth dearth. By 1973, rates dropped far enough below necessary levels to maintain population figures. If these numbers persisted, only immigration would successfully lift the U.S. population above its 1996 level of 264 million.

Economic- Shock Waves Take Over The maturing babies of the recent postwar boom sent shock waves over the economy as the needs of their generation escalated as they progressed themselves. As toddlers in the 1940’s and 50’s a demand for a market for manufacturers of canned food and other baby products.

Social- Generation Progression As teenagers in the 1960’s, the generation spent an estimated $20 billion a year for clothes and recorded rock music Progression continued as the 1970’s demand called for the most popular jeans maker to begin marketing pants with a fuller cut for those former “kids” who could no longer squeeze into their size-thirty Levi’s.

Economic- Increased Demand of Job Opportunities In the 1980’s, a strain was put on the job market as competition increased. In the 1990’s, the generation began to enter middle age, raising its own “secondary boom” of children

1st Source The political cartoon involving the generation of baby boomers clearly shows the tension of job opportunities in the 1980’s, which was then followed by a secondary generation of boomers as the original postwar boomers reached middle age.

2nd Source The primary source involves a newspaper showing the increased popularity of TV and general entertainment in the 1960’s as the postwar baby boomers reached the teenage era of their lives. Propaganda rates increased as well as the main target was that of the large generation of boomers.

3rd Source The source shows the generation itself, postwar baby boomers fighting for their rights of jobs in America. As the generation reached the age in which they all needed jobs to support themselves, opportunities were scarce because of the increase in demand and competition within that field.

IB Style Questions Analyze the effects of the baby boomers generation in the 1960’s Explain the economic strain of scarce job opportunities.