NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Whalen Wong.

And I'm Adrian Ma, and today is Jobs Friday.

We got news today that 315,000 jobs were added to the US economy in August, even as the

unemployment rate rose a little.

That was largely driven by more people wanting to return to work.

And while the total number of jobs has returned to pre-pandemic levels, the data also showed

that the size of the labor force is still smaller than it was before COVID, close to 3 million

people smaller.

So where are they?

This is a question that has nagged at us at the indicator for months, and it has also haunted

economists and people who study the labor market.

People like Katie Buck.

There have been a whole number of narratives, everything from people don't want to work,

to unemployment insurance was too generous, to people who are leaving bad jobs.

Katie's been trying to pin down another explanation for the missing workers.

And that is, workers have left their jobs or cut back their hours because they're struggling

with long COVID.

They still have symptoms for months after infection.

Today in the show, we'll look at how researchers like Katie are trying to account for the impact

of long COVID on the labor market.

Plus, we'll also meet one of those affected workers.

...