The Long COVID Problem and the Labor Force Participation Rate

In April 2.9 million people reported that they could not work for all or part of the Employment Survey Week due to their own illness. This is down very sharply from the 7.8 million peak in January 2022, as actually only marginally higher than the April average of 2.7 million seen in the five years before the pandemic. Labor force participation drops dramatically over the age of 65 and ever since 2012 the Babeoom generation has been moving over the Age of 65.