Fewer Men Working in Prime Earning Years.

The chart below is for men 25-54 -- what should be the prime working years. If this were related to cyclical phenomena you should see a reduction in non-participation by 2010 at least. Yet it keeps going up. Economics teaches us that when you make not working less painful you will have fewer people working. It is hard to build sustainable growth when fewer and fewer people work to support more and more people that aren't working.