re: Forbes Mag - Obama outperforms Reagan on jobs growth and investing

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Unless I have fundamentally misunderstood the definition of participation rate as it applies to retirees, I do not see how your last two paragraphs in the edit follow.

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Unless you actually indicate you are retired, you are considered part of the work force. A 60 year old who took a layoff or left a job when their pension was vested is unemployed but since social security and perhaps their pension benefits haven't kicked in, they haven't officially called it quits. They may not even be actively looking for a new job but may take some part time work.

My uncle is about 60 and has been retired from the NYPD at full benefits ($85K per year?) for about 10 years now. He sometimes works part time as a bartender mostly just for enjoyment and may occasionally take up a "contract" assignment. He is all but retired but would be considered part of the work force that is either marginally employed or maybe unemployed / not actively seeking work.

But the bottom line is that the reasons don't matter. All that matters is that that age group participates the least and right now we have more people in that age group as a percentage of the population than ever before.