WWTBAM Bored

The coronavirus that nearly killed Stephanie Schroeder in 2020 is still keeping her from working. She suffered cardiac arrest twice and was in the hospital for three months, then came home to more than a year of kidney problems and intermittent brain fog, tingling in her hands, numbness in her right foot and a need for oxygen after even modest exertion. Schroeder used to supervise nursing students. Lately the McDonough resident has been volunteering to run concessions at some high school track meets, trying to edge back toward the workplace.

She is among many people with lingering COVID-19 aftereffects who cannot work or can only work part-time. The condition has been given a name: post-acute sequelae SARS-CoV-2 infection, or PASC. But it is commonly called long COVID. It may be the missing piece in a pandemic puzzle: Why has the number of people in the labor force lagged? Why are there still so many unfilled job openings?

While more than 900,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus, the vast majority of people who contract it do survive. But many — between 10% and 30% of those who live, experts say — continue to struggle with symptoms. That is a lot of people: up to 23 million nationwide and nearly 800,000 people in Georgia, according to estimates by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Some don’t work. Some are still in the labor force, but at reduced hours.

Long COVID does not appear explicitly in the labor data. But there are clues. The labor force in Georgia is still 28,341 below its pre-pandemic level, and the real gap is larger. At the pace of pre-pandemic growth, the labor force would be about 184,000 larger than it is today.
The number of people with jobs but out sick averaged 50% higher last year nationally than in 2019.
The number of people nationally who usually work full-time but who are working part-time because of illness rose through last year. Since last summer, it has averaged 16% higher than pre-pandemic times.
The number of people who were out of the labor force with a disability is up 5.5%, or nearly 1.3 million, from the summer of 2020.
The Census Bureau’s most recent survey showed more than a quarter-million people in Georgia either sick or caring for someone with coronavirus symptoms.

Kathryn Bach, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, who has studied the issue, calculated that long COVID accounts for about 1.6 million people missing from the U.S. labor force. That’s equivalent to at least 15% of the nation’s job openings. By her calculation, about 45,000 people in Georgia are missing from the labor force because of long COVID. https://www.brookings.edu/research/is-l ... -shortage/

Symptoms of long COVID include debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, pain and a “brain fog” that makes it hard to focus. With most federal pandemic programs expired, a COVID “long-hauler” who cannot work can apply for disability. That challenging process is even tougher for a new disease, many of whose worst symptoms — like brain fog — are invisible.

Experts say early retirement is the biggest single reason for people leaving the labor force, and long COVID is part of that, Gaskin said. She estimates long COVID accounts for about a quarter of early retirements.