Employment rates: young vs. prime-age workers
This chart compares employment-population ratios for workers ages 20–24 and 25–54. It uses monthly BLS Current Population Survey data from the official BLS API; each rate has its own age-group population denominator, and the comparison does not isolate education, experience, or AI effects.
What does it show?
Young-adult employment remains much weaker than prime-age employment and has recovered less fully.
Methodology
Monthly seasonally adjusted employment-population ratios from the official BLS Public Data API: ages 20–24 (LNS12300036) and ages 25–54 (LNS12300060). Each line is employed people as a percentage of its own age group's civilian noninstitutional population, so it is not an employment-level comparison. The groups differ in school enrollment, experience, and labor-force attachment; the chart describes relative labor-market outcomes and does not attribute changes to AI or any single cause. Every second monthly observation is retained for display, plus the latest.