Over this period, employment nationally has increased about 6 percent. 2  Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics for the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville metropolitan division. 3  See Kory Kroft, Fabian Lange, and Matthew J. Notowidigdo (2013), “Duration Dependence and Labor Market Conditions: Evidence from a Field Experiment,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 128 (3), pp.
Nonetheless, the timely imposition of appropriate pandemic-related measures is necessary to control COVID-19 surges and arrest the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant. The continued vaccination efforts and improving healthcare interventions in managing severe cases should usher the eventual transition of COVID-19 from pandemic to endemic.