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Since 2000, the national labor force participation rate, the percentage of people over 16 years of age who are either employed or actively seeking a job, has been slowly falling. This trend, however, hides considerable disparities between different age groups. The current recession has exacerbated these disparities, as the chart below illustrates.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
The decline in labor force participation among those between the ages of 16 and 24 has accelerated since the start of the recession. Given the poor job prospects in today's economy, young people most likely are opting to stay in school longer. (Full-time students who are not employed are not considered to be part of the labor force, according to the official definition used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) At the opposite end of the spectrum, people close to or past retirement age have increased their labor force participation since the start of the recession. Moreover, the labor force participation of people just past the retirement age (65 to 69 years old) has increased more dramatically than that of people 55 to 64. (The labor force participation rate of people over 65 years old is always considerably lower than that of younger age groups. To make it easier to compare the trends, the series depicting labor force participation rate for 65-69 year old group is plotted on the secondary axis.) Since the start of the recession, labor force participation among people between the ages of 65 and 69 increased by 1.6 percentage points (from 30 to 31.6 percent), while the labor force participation of those between 54 and 64 increased by 0.8 percentage point (from 64.5 to 65.3 percent). For both of these groups, the labor force participation rates are now at the highest levels on record. It is likely that people close to or past the retirement age feel the need to work because their retirement savings have suffered in the recent financial crisis. Unfortunately, the recession makes finding jobs more difficult for people of all ages, as the chart below shows. Although many young people have dropped out of the labor force, the unemployment rate among those aged 16 to 24 has increased dramatically since the start of the recession. It stood at 16.7 percent in April. (The unemployment rate represents the percentage of those in the labor force who is currently unemployed.) 
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
The unemployment rate among people close to the retirement age also has increased significantly. The unemployment rate for those between the ages of 55 and 64 reached 6.7 percent in March, a level not seen since 1983. The unemployment rate for people between 65 and 69 reached 6.8 percent in February – the highest level on record. Since then it has fallen a bit but still remains high at 6.4 percent. It seems that the financial crisis, which destroyed retirement savings, has forced people of retirement age back into the labor force, but tough labor market conditions have pushed the unemployment rate among this age group to record highs.
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I find it hard to believe the parents and grandparents of my generation gave up their gold without an apparent public revolt. I suppose they did so simply because most had little our none (they ignored the constitution and the rule of law). To add insult to injury, the government bought it at $20, then inflated it to $37 per troy ounce. An 85% profit (theft) for the government.
So called intelligent academic, business, and government leaders did not understand or ignored (for their personal gain) the simple truth of free enterprise, value of capital and saving, honesty, fairness, and equality of all before a the law.
I hoped Congress would get the message when the USSR went bankrupt, but they didn't.
Now, it is time to pay the piper. We are now on a path of financial destruction from which we may not recover. With out question there will be much hardship for all the peoples of the world for who knows how many years before we start anew.
Many calendars supposedly end with the year 2012, but I don't think our maker has given up on us yet.
May we learn something from our mistakes.
I think the younger generation of the US has become lazy, and believes it deserves handouts at every turn. So this data does not surprise me at all.
Show me somenone who needs additional monies in their retirement years and generally I can show you someone who was too busy to monitor his own investments and has trusted the Madoffs of the world to do their investing and as a result have either lose all or a good portion of the pension funds.
Insofar as those who claim the need to stay busy...I say there are plenty of charities and religious groups that could use the services of experienced seniors which would help a lot of people who are experiencing difficulties during this recessionary period.
This will allow the younger generation to do what our retired generation did for over 40 years and that is to be gainfully employed provide for their families and not have to compete with seniors who do not need a job and in many cases the money... they just want to stay busy.
You wanna stay busy...contribute some of your time to people who need help.....