Document Type
Working Paper
Date of this Version
4-4-2022
Abstract
The labor-force participation rates of prime-age U.S. workers dropped in March 2020—the start of the COVID-19 pandemic—and have still not fully recovered. At the same time, substance-abuse deaths were elevated during the pandemic relative to trend indicating an increase in the number of substance abusers, and abusers of opioids and crystal methamphetamine have lower labor-force participation rates than non-abusers. Could increased substance abuse during the pandemic be a factor contributing to the fall in labor-force participation? Estimates of the number of additional substance abusers during the pandemic presented here suggest that increased substance abuse accounts for between 9 and 26 percent of the decline in prime-age labor-force participation between February 2020 and June 2021.
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, substance abuse, labor-force participation
Recommended Citation
Greenwood, Jeremy, Nezih Guner, and Karen Kopecky. 2022. "Substance Abuse during the Pandemic: Implications for Labor-Force Participation." University of Pennsylvania Population Center Working Paper (PSC/PARC), 2022-88. https://repository.upenn.edu/psc_publications/88.
Included in
Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Economics Commons, Substance Abuse and Addiction Commons, Work, Economy and Organizations Commons
Date Posted: 24 March 2022