Hard to believe there isn’t a lot of slack indicated here.

Note that it’s always gone up during an expansion, until now:

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And isolating the ‘prime working age’ removes the ‘aging factor’

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In fact, the chart for ‘over 55’ shows the overall drop in participation didn’t come from this group, and, seems, their participation would have gone up in a ‘normal’ recovery:

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And who would have thought a weak demand would hurt these groups first/hardest…
Certainly not in America…

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And, while down dramatically, look how high this has been and still is:

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But maybe the clue to why the subject is getting all the attention this time around lies here?

Just saying…

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For all men the rate’s been falling for a long time, with the recent drop less noticeable.

And it used to be over 85%!

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Add this and you have the appearance that (lower cost?) women have been replacing (higher cost?) men for a long time now?

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Enough to make the point.

Unlike all prior recoveries, this recovery continues to fail to keep up with population and productivity growth

Which is the evidence that the federal budget deficit is far to low for current financial condition.

That is, the output gap remains extreme and, if anything, is growing, as out government continues to fail its electorate.