The Bureau of Labor Statistics is out with a cool chart today that shows the labor force participation for different age groups over the years. Over the past 20 years, our work force has consistently become older and that isn't projected to change anytime soon.
In 1992, more than half of 16-to-19 year olds were working. That fell to just over 30% in 2012 and will be near a quarter in 2022.
A similar, but less pronounced drop exists for 20-to-24 year olds.
On the other end of the age range, only 4.5% of people over the age of 75 were working in 1992. In 2012, that number is 7.6% and it's projected to rise to over 10% by 2022. BLS expects more than 30% of Americans aged 65-74 to be working in 2022, up from 26.8% two years ago.
In 1992, the average age of the labor force was 37.1. It was 41.9 in 2012.
Here's the full chart:
