By the numbers: According to the Census Household Pulse Survey (conducted Aug. 18-30) released Wednesday, 3.2 million Americans said they were not working because they were “concerned about getting or spreading the coronavirus.”

This is up from the low of 2.5 million in the July 21 to Aug. 2 survey.

The number peaked at 6.24 million in July 2020 but has been trending lower ever since.

Flashback: The U.S. economy added just 235,000 jobs in August, well short of economists’ expectation for 725,000 jobs and a sharp deceleration from the 1.05 million jobs created in July.