You are questioning whether the current Labor Force Participation rate and whether it has gone down over the years. The peak in recent history appears to have been around 2000 at 67.3%. Currently, it's at 63.6%.
The furthest back I could find is 1948 for 58.6 at the start of that year. Last time we were in the 63% range was in 1980s. Guessing from 19th century, it has gone up.
The key here is to understand what influences this rate. Many factors go into what percentage of population chooses to seek employment. For example, if my wife and I are rich enough, when we have kids, we may want to have one or even both of us take a few years off to raise them. This is a profound luxury in the current US society. Some countries have extended maternity leave that lasts for 3 years and includes some form of pay or other welfare payment. Such structures would easily drive the participation rate down.
Conversely, public daycares and other child-friendly services promote higher participation rates by freeing both adults to work.
These examples are meant to show that the "machines are taking our jobs" discussion to be a gross oversimplification of a much more complex system. So far, history tells us that we will adapt. That still leaves a possibility of a black swan event... In either case, I have faith in humanity :-)
The furthest back I could find is 1948 for 58.6 at the start of that year. Last time we were in the 63% range was in 1980s. Guessing from 19th century, it has gone up.
Source: http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet
The key here is to understand what influences this rate. Many factors go into what percentage of population chooses to seek employment. For example, if my wife and I are rich enough, when we have kids, we may want to have one or even both of us take a few years off to raise them. This is a profound luxury in the current US society. Some countries have extended maternity leave that lasts for 3 years and includes some form of pay or other welfare payment. Such structures would easily drive the participation rate down.
Conversely, public daycares and other child-friendly services promote higher participation rates by freeing both adults to work.
These examples are meant to show that the "machines are taking our jobs" discussion to be a gross oversimplification of a much more complex system. So far, history tells us that we will adapt. That still leaves a possibility of a black swan event... In either case, I have faith in humanity :-)