Quote from: giantdragon on December 08, 2013, 08:57:28 PM

Secondly, have you noticed labor force participation leveled off last years even in absolute numbers (population continued to grow nevertheless)?

Quote from: PirateHatForTea on December 08, 2013, 10:03:47 PM

Two important things to note about the figures you quote

The growth in labor force stopped in 2007 - this appears to be unprecedented in the data
The labor force is measured in absolute numbers - a much more meaningful benchmark is the % participation rate

Most of the growth in participation rate in the last 60 years has come from bringing women into the workforce. That reversed to a massive extent, at least in the USA, in 2007, and hasn't recovered.

Uh, yeah, we had a severe global economic collapse, followed by increased regulations, capital seizures, and austerity measures. We didn't just invent "technlogy" in 2000's. What we did have is a huge increase in outsourcing.
And sure, women entered the workforce in USA, and maybe in Europe, in 1950's, but women have been in the workforce pretty much constantly in USSR and many other parts world through the 1900's and prior.