67% of Men Had Jobs in 2010—a New Low

A mere 45.4% of Americans were working in 2010, the lowest rate since women started flooding into the workforce in the 1980s, according to a new analysis from USA Today. The figure, down from a peak of 49.3% in 2000, indicates that a combination of a bad economy and an aging population are driving more and more Americans out of the workforce.

While the percentage of women with jobs remained relatively constant, men continued to drop out of the workforce, with only 66.8% holding jobs—the lowest level on record. Another big shift: In 2000, there were roughly as many non-working children as non-working adults. But since then the nation has added 27 million more non-working adults, and only 3 million children under 18. (More unemployment stories.)