Prime age (25-54) labor participation has been climbing steadily since 2015, and while not 100% recovered, it is quite close to pre-08 numbers. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

The graph people like to cite when they say nothing has gotten better, the "plain" one: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART , is fairly misleading without context. That one is calculated simply based on the non-instutionalized (prison/hospital) population over age 16.

There's a number of major contributors to that one that make it unlikely to ever recover in my view. Some notable points:

- Aging. The US might be aging slower than many other developed countries, but median age is climbing, there are more retirees as a % of the over 16 population each year. Each one of those counts against the labor participation rate.

- Employment in the 16-19 age bracket has plummeted, down ~15% since the 90s. College attendance, societal changes, etc.

Do we have the raw data to calculate the participation rate of 24-60 year olds over time?

Nominal wages have risen enough over the past 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 decades such that real wages have remained roughly flat across that time (and in last 2 decades real wages have risen in general).

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us...

The wage part is incorrect. Wages have been growing the past years