Authors’ note: The disability community is rapidly evolving to using identity-first language in place of person-first language. This is because it views disability as being a core component of identity, much like race and gender. Some members of the community, such as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, prefer person-first language. In this report, the terms are used interchangeably.
Burnout,1 quiet quitting,2 and labor shortages3 have all been repeated in news headlines in the past few years. But underneath these clickbait perspectives on the labor market is something that should be much more concerning: Americans are in the thick of a mass disabling event4—one of the largest since the AIDS5 and polio6 epidemics—due to post-COVID-19 symptoms creating a condition known as long COVID. In the face of an increasing casualty count and so-called labor shortages,7 it is essential that employers reevaluate their workplaces to create more accommodative workplaces. By centering accommodations and worker benefits that are perceived as only helping disabled workers, workplaces become better for all workers.
This report utilizes new data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (HPS)8 to find that in early to mid-October 2022, 17.3 million adults reported experiencing long COVID, with significant employment gaps surfacing. The failure of employers and policymakers to better accommodate disabled people in the labor market9 also...
Air traffic controllers have slammed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s claims that high rates of controller sick calls have led to days of delays and disruption across the Northeast, saying th...