the big change in the labor force participation rate during the last 5 decades or so has been the shift of women from producing use-values at home to producing exchange-values in market-oriented businesses. The former work does not get counted as part of the labor force, but the latter does not. Could it be that Europe isn't as far down (or up?) that road as the US. It's important to break down the stats by sex, age, ethnicity, etc. in order to get a truer understanding of what's been going on.
In any event, no-one can "prove" anything by pointing to any statistics. This is especially true if one uses only the most global stats.
-- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles