Participation Rates Australia - still above average

Had a look at the unemployment figures that came out today...6.1%. Not great. Especially with a participation rate that continues to decline. So I was curious...are we turning out to be the US with a participation rate hitting below average.
Well apparently not. In fact, our average since 1978 has actually been 63.1% so at our current rate of 64.5% we aren't going too bad.

But a more detailed look at the participation stats gives us a little more insight into where the problems are, if you call them problems.

It's actually in the young areas where the participation rates have been dropping.

Averages (Feb 1978-Aug 2014)
15-19         20-24     25-34     35-44        45-54      55-60      61-65       65+      All Ages
58.8%       81.6%     79.5%    80.9%      77.2%     60.1%    36.8%      6.8%      63.1%


Current values - Aug 2014  
15-19        20-24     25-34      35-44        45-54      55-60      61-65       65+      All Ages
52.1%       76.5%    82.5%     83.5%       83.0%    74.2%    54.5%     12.9%     64.7%  

So as you can se, its only in the youngest groupings that the current values are below trend. So either more people in education (labor's interpretation) or more people doing cones and playing Xbox (Liberals)   But what I find interesting is the huge increases in the older age groups. I wonder just how bad these guys got hit in the GFC. And its true that since the GFC (2007), the rate of increase per year in the participation rate across the last three age groups are:-  

55-60      60-64     65+
1.22%    2.31%    5.38%  

A lot of people lost their retirement savings I think, causing them to go back into the workforce. Not great.  

BTW, here is a graph showing the historical rates of Participation over the years.