Overall GDP growth in the United States has been lagging for more than 50 years, a phenomenon known as the 'growth slowdown.'[1] Human capital considerations, when they are tied to the demographics of the working population, explain this growth slowdown (Chart 1). A slowdown in GDP growth from past levels, over the foregoing decades, has been driven by a human productivity slowdown, from nearly 3 percent per year in the 1970s to less than 2 percent in the 2000s