1.6 million workers could be missing from the labor market right now because of long COVID, accounting for upwards of 15% of unfilled jobs, according to an estimate from Katie Bach, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

This makes every aspect of the labor shortage “more severe,” she told Axios.

Details: Studies have estimated long COVID prevalence falls anywhere from 5% to 60% of COVID cases. Splitting the difference at 30%, more than 22 million Americans may be suffering from long COVID symptoms, according to the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

“Many of the patients we’re seeing are in the 40-year-old range. They’re people who are still working … and then they got COVID,” Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, director of the COVID Recovery Clinic at University Health in Texas, told Axios.