Unfortunately I think that's just aging of the population. There's no upper age limit in that calculation. It includes retirees as "not in the labour force".
If you look at the participation rate of people aged 25-54 it's near all time highs.
If you look at the participation rate of people aged 25-54 it's near all time highs.
e.x. In the 90s there was a lot of 'culling' of older workers especially if they didn't embrace tech I know my father was forced into retirement despite being a fully capable worker (heck he did database consulting work for a transit system after the forced retirement, before he became a floral delivery driver.)
In his case, he wanted to retire, but honestly he tried to give me and my siblings a better life so the consulting and part time jobs were something to help pay off PLUS loans while also letting him and my mom be able to do vacations and the like.
But I'm also thinking about the factor of a lot of folks had a lot of hits.
Also 25-54 is such a rough demographic.... Lots of ways to just keep that metric clean FBOW.
The answer there is likely we're keeping them in school longer + filling downtime with school or social media or "extracurriculars". Alongside a growing NEET cohort that doesn't feel motivation to do anything or is disabled.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300036
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300012
As for 55+, I'd be very interested to see the relative age distribution within that pool over that period. I suspect there's a lot more 65+ within the pool now than when the rate was higher. That trend is set to grow.