Long covid is shrinking the workforce — Quartz at Work
▻https://qz.com/work/2167480/long-covid-is-shrinking-the-workforce
[…] an analysis from a Bank of England monetary committee member is one of the first to draw links between long covid and the tightening of the labor market. The chronic condition has been one of the main drivers of the shrinking labor pool in the UK, according to a May 9 speech from Michael Saunders, an external member of the bank’s nine-member committee.
The total UK workforce shrank by 440,000 people up to February 2022, compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, just before the pandemic, according to Saunders. “The scale and persistence of this drop in labor supply has been a surprise to many forecasters, including us,” Saunders said in his speech.
Some of the drop was due to “the interaction of Brexit and the pandemic,” which prevented much migration to the UK of people who could fill open jobs, as well as retirements, he said. But there was also a marked drop in participation rates, especially among people aged 50 to 64, he said, most of which was due to long-term sickness.