US – June 2015 Job Report vs October 1977

So what exactly did the United States look like in October 1977, the last time the labor-participation rate was this low? Obviously the most important question is what Americans were listening to. (The month’s top songs were Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life” and—seriously—Meco’s “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band.”) The American economy at the time was a bit like today’s—recovering slowly from a recession, with underwhelming but steady growth. That would come to an end with the 1979 energy crisis, which knocked the American economy back into recession. But the labor force looked much different, as this side-by-side comparison shows (1977 BLS data is via the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank):

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  June 2015 Jobs Numbers: Labor Participation Drops to October 1977 Levels – The Atlantic.

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