How Close Are We to Full Employment?

General Glut argues--based on a chart of the employment-to-population ratio for the male noninstitutional population 25-64--that we are still far below any reasonable definition of full employment.

I agree. But I worry about early retirements--men in their late fifties and early sixties who really don't want to work anymore. So I prefer to look at the male non-institutional population 25-54:

It took two full decades--from 1980 to 2000--for "full employment" for this group to drop from 91% to 89%. It strains credulity to argue that in the last five years "full employment" for this group has dropped down to 87%.