Chart 1 is interesting. It shows "labor input utilization" (that is, how much people are actually working) finally almost catching up to long-term trend after the 2008 crash. Maybe now we can get some wage inflation!
We have been. Real (inflation adjusted) median household income has been going up in recent years, from ~$57k / household in 2014 to ~$63k / household in 2018:
"The share of available time devoted to work is the LIUR, calculated as the total number of hours that the working-age population (16 years of age and older) was actually at work relative to discretionary hours—100 hours a week on average per working-age individual—that that population could have devoted to work.(3) The numerator—hours at work—excludes hours paid while on vacation or on various leaves that do not contribute any labor input to the production process."
"3) This number of hours of time available to work per week for each member of the working-age population has been conventionally adopted in the literature by rounding up the figures documented in “Response to a Skeptic,” by Edward C. Prescott, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review, Fall 1986."
"4) Notice also that, by construction, the labor input utilization rate (LIUR) overcomes one of the limitations of another commonly used labor market indicator, the employment/working-age population ratio, which measures the number of workers on payroll, regardless of the number of hours they are at work. This alternative indicator could provide the false impression of a tighter labor market in circumstances in which two or more part-time workers have replaced several full-time workers, even if the total number of hours worked remained unchanged."
From:
https://www.dallasfed.org/~/media/documents/research/eclett/...
And from my perspective, it's quite weird indicator.
On one hand, the rise indicated women who had careers in their lives entered their 55+ years and brought the average up. Before then it simply wasn't an option as a woman even if you wanted one.
On the other it can indicate increased participation due to scarcer financial resources necessitating labor.
Its the difference between having to work and wanting to. Both are a kind of slavery because both are eliminating individual personal choice in the matter.
Either I misread you, or you are saying something rather absurd...
The second interpretation is just depressing, and I suspect it is the more dominant effect.
It would be helpful to see a further breakdown.