Trump’s immigration curbs will help take 2.4 million people out of the workforce, but he’s betting AI can pick up the slack

The U.S. working-age population is headed for a cliff, one that has become much steeper over the past year due, in part, to the Trump administration’s strict immigration policies.

The proportion of American adults who are employed or actively looking for a job was always going to shrink over the next decade as the labor force as a whole ages. But declining birth rates and the White House’s immigration crackdown is set to put an even larger dent in America’s future workforce—a more than 2 million-person gap.

Over the next decade, the U.S. population is forecast to grow an average 0.3% each year, according to an outlook report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), published Wednesday. That’s half the growth rate the nonpartisan agency had reported last year, and equates to a downward revision of 2.4 million fewer working-age Americans by 2035. A smaller workforce could have a considerable effect on U.S. productivity for the foreseeable future—but in the Trump administration’s eyes, emerging technologies could help mitigate the blow.

The CBO report noted rising business adoption of artificial intelligence could help productivity st...