US worker absences highlight mixed labor market as pandemic recedes

investing.com:

(Reuters) — The latest government data on Friday showed the U.S. added 216,000 jobs in December, as the labor market settles back towards more normal levels following almost four years of upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figures on worker absences that accompany the U.S. Labor Department's monthly employment report, derived from a separate monthly survey of households, show both the rebound from, and the lingering impact of, the health crisis. While the data are not seasonally adjusted, the trend lines are clear.

DATA ON ABSENCES MIXED

The number of workers who were absent due to illness, injury, a medical problem or appointment reached a peak of 7.8 million in January 2022 as a normalizing labor market collided with a spike in COVID-19 cases caused by the more transmissible Omicron variant. About one million infections were reported per day that month.

There were still about 29,000 hospitalizations in the U.S. due to the virus in the week before Christmas last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while there have been an average of 1,400 deaths per week since the Thanksgiving holiday. Still, that's fewer than half of the number of deaths for the same period last year.

The absence level from work for illness or injury-related reasons was almost 25% lower last month than a year ago. Overall, there was a large decline in the number of people who missed work for those reasons in 2023, although the figure for those who usually work full-time but had to work part-time due to illness, while falling, remains elevated.

CHILDCARE PROBLEMS REMAIN

The pandemic played havoc with childcare, as schools moved to virtual learning or stopped lessons altogether for a prolonged period, and some