In many ways the US workforce today is mirroring the changes that occurred during the Great Depression.  During the 1930s, older workers remain on the job longer, people in their twenties sought higher degrees (delayed entry into a bad workforce) and unemployed older workers were seeking disability in higher rates.  In 2010, the last year of statistics, we have almost double the percentage of people 65 to 80 continuing to work than worked in 1990.  Those numbers are expected to triple by 2020 as Baby Boomers remain in the workforce.   According to the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, only a quarter of the drop in labor participation rate is related to retirement.  We are also experiencing a greater number of people seeking college education and post graduate degrees than ever before.  So, our country has the largest percentage of highly educated possible workers.  To what extent that will translate to a better workforce is unknown.  We are also witnessing a reversal of women participation in the workforce as the difficult job market encourages more families to have one person stay at home to raise children.  These factors are influencing the unemployment rate which is declining even in the face of anemic job creation.  This scenario was not predicted prior to the Great Recession of 2008.  What other changes will we witness?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/06/the-incredible-shrinking-labor-force-again/