U.S. Employment Trends

Some very interesting trends in US employment that I saw in a free newsletter I subscribe to. The data is from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. Total US employment has partially recovered from the Great Recession:

But things look very different when you break the total down into age groups (the first graph is not seasonally adjusted and the others are...). In the main 25-54 age group there has been little recovery:

while in the above 55's there was hardly a recession:

This graph is truly stunning I think. The under 25's seem to follow the pattern of total employment:

It's perhaps understandable that employment in this cheaper to hire group has rebounded strongly (but employment of 16-19 year old's has not), but what explains the almost lack of decline in employment in the over 55's? Usually, you'd expect older workers to be retired early in a recession.