Prime-age Americans in workforce hit decade high

Bloomberg

The percentage of people in the US aged 25 to 54 who are employed or actively looking for work has climbed to the highest in a decade as demand in the health-care and education sectors lures more women into the workforce.
Labour force participation in the so-called prime-age group rose to 82.8% in October, matching the rate from August 2009, the Labour Department said in its monthly employment report. The rate was 82.9% in June 2009, and peaked at 84.6% in January 1999.
Some 76.6% of women in the group were employed or actively looking for work in October, up from 76.2% in the previous month. That was the highest participation rate since 77.3% in April 2000, according to the data. The percentage of similarly-aged men held steady at 89.1% in October.
October’s US unemployment rate edged up from a half-century low to 3.6%, while average hourly earnings climbed 3% from a year earlier, matching projections.
The number of education and health-care workers topped 24.4 million last month, the highest on record.