Drug-Abuse Spike Hampered US Labor Market Recovery, Paper Says

A surge in drug abuse during the Covid-19 pandemic has hampered the recovery in the US labor market, according to a recent paper released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Elevated substance abuse accounted for 9% to 26% of the decline in the workforce participation of workers age 25 to 54 -- so called prime-age -- between February 2020 and June 2021, said the authors of the study, adding that participation still hadn’t fully recovered by early 2022.

Drug addiction soared over the past two years, leading to a record of deaths from overdoses. The paper’s findings suggest that ...