Share of workers 55 and older has grown over the last decade U.S. labor force, by age, Dec. 2007- Oct. 2017 (seasonally adjusted)
There’s more gray in the workforce. Americans ages 55 and older make up more than a fifth of the total labor force today (22.8%, seasonally adjusted), compared with 17.6% at the start of the Great Recession. Over the past decade, in fact, labor force participation has risen only among the 55-and-older contingent – from a seasonally adjusted 38.9% in December 2007 to 39.8% last month. (That continued a trend that began in the mid-1990s, though for the past eight years the 55-and-older participation rate has been fairly level.) As the population has aged and participation rates have fallen for people in their prime working years, 35- to 54-year-olds now account for just 41.4% of the labor force (seasonally adjusted), down from 46.4% in December 2007.
Share of workers 55 and older has  | grown over the last decade  | U.S. labor force, by age, Dec. 2007- Oct. 2017  | (seasonally adjusted)  | 100  | 14 .4%  | 13 2%  | 16-24  | 21.6  | 25-34  | 22.6  | 50  | 46.4  | 35-54  | 41.4  | 22.8  | 55 and older  | 17.6  | OS 09 10 11 12 '13 '14 '15 '16 117  | Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 