You lived through the fastest economic recovery in three decades

The latest data on the US labor market marks a particularly notable moment: Prime-age labor force participation—the share of 25-to-54-year-old Americans at work—has risen above the peak set in 2020, immediately before the pandemic.

The result shows just how remarkable the recovery from the pandemic recession has been. After the 2008 financial crisis, prime-age labor force participation didn’t recover for more than twelve years; it took just just over three this time around. Following the 2001 recession, the share of prime-age workers in the labor force never recovered! But in March 2023,...