Quote from: Rassah on December 10, 2013, 03:27:23 PM

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.

I don't fully understand your point. Is it that global participation rates haven't been trending downwards? Because even your data shows a downtrend once converted to a per-capita participation rate instead of gross workforce.

Or perhaps it is about there being extenuating circumstances for the extreme downturn in US participation rate - fair enough, you'd be right. But you can't deny that at least recently, jobs that disappear form the system have not come back - perhaps we have entered an era of 'ratcheting down' of jobs.

Your comments about women in the workforce in eg USSR in the early 20th century are a red herring.