As for the participation rate I've said it can be tied to women entering the workforce. Now the decline is because of women leaving the workforce. Male participation rates have been steadily dropping since the 40's. People can bitch about it being because of Obama. They are flat out wrong. It's structural.
And what structure is that? I would say 90% of it is tied to the welfare state. No one thinks that Obama invented the welfare state, but he's sure got his hand on the throttle and tiller right now, and that throttle has been shoved full forward.
Whoa, neat graph!
The wife & I were looking at it and what we’re seeing is that men & women are still different but not nearly as much as they were a half century ago.