Millions of U.S. workers are still missing as the pandemic recedes. Where did they go?
LA TimesEmpty office chairs inside Goldman Sachs’ headquarters in New York in January. Had the average rate preceding the pandemic held, the labor force would have had 1.1 million more people in 2022, according to an outlook published by the Congressional Budget Office this month. Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell has cited research by the central bank’s economists showing that “excess retirements” account for more than 2 million of the missing workers, but that hasn’t been updated per the Labor Department’s revision. Although that could have made up a big chunk of missing workers at the height of the pandemic, immigration has since picked up and probably plays a smaller role in America’s worker shortage today, UC Davis professor Giovanni Peri said. Last August, she estimated long COVID reduced the U.S. labor force by the equivalent of 1.6 million people when accounting for those who either worked fewer hours or left entirely.
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