OK, I am looking at it right now. Prime-age workforce participation rate stands at 84%, a 20-year high and nearly the all-time high. What did you want it to be? Have you actually ever seen this stat?

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1sW5m

I've concluded there is some segment of people who really just want everything to fail and fall apart. Any data that goes against that narrative must be fake.

I more generously conclude that they are simply being influenced by bad-faith commentators who appeal to the desire to seem smart, while the victims are also unwilling to take the time to look at primary sources. It is superficially true that the gross labor force participation rate is falling, and it is easy for shadowstats grifters to point that out. They are hoping you won't notice that this is caused entirely by Boomers retiring.

I have to generously conclude that people who think all is well live in communities of similarly educated high achieving adult.

At least 20% of adults are incapable of following a schedule, let alone holding a white collar job.

To put it another way; I don’t know a single person outside of well educated circles who is doing ok in employment (and a lot that aren’t anyway).

The bias in institutional reporting is not toward collapse. Its toward institutional status quo.

So are you just abandoning your theory of the labor force participation rate, or do you want to revise it?

Nope. I stand by all comments in this thread.