“COVID-19 illnesses persistently reduce labor supply. We estimate that workers with week-long work absences are seven percent less likely to be in the labor force one year later compared to otherwise-similar workers who do not miss a week of work for health reasons,” say the study’s authors, Gopi Shah Goda of Stanford University and Evan Soltas of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Economics Department.
“Many who fall ill but survive COVID-19 suffer from enduring health problems … approximately 500,000 adults are neither working nor actively looking for work due to the persistent effects of COVID-19 illnesses,” the study adds.
Another study published last month by a D.C.-based research think tank, the Brookings Institution, estimated that as many as 2.4 million have missed work, are temporarily absent or are working reduced hours because of the lingering effects of the virus.
This article is originally published at cgtn.com
