The Impacts of COVID-19 Illnesses on U.S. Workers

This project investigates whether the post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, colloquially referred to as “long COVID” and involving lingering symptoms from COVID-19 illness, has meaningfully depressed labor force participation. To overcome the limited data on long COVID, we construct an indicator of COVID-19 illness, based on the 60 percent increase in work absences due to illness since the start of the pandemic, and the high correlation between illness-related absences and reported cases of COVID-19. Because respondents in the monthly CPS are surveyed on a rotating basis over the course of 16 months, it is possible to follow individuals with illness-related work absences over a period of approximately one year, allowing for a longitudinal analysis of short- and medium-term consequences of suspected COVID-19 illness on labor market outcomes. We aim to quantify the causal link between illness-related work absences and labor market/disability outcomes using an event-study approach that estimates within-person changes in labor market behavior in the periods prior to and following absence.