Record number of Americans missed work due to illness in January

– A record number of people, totaling more than 3.6 million, were unable to work due to illness during the week that officials gathered data for the benchmark U.S. monthly employment report, which coincided with the peak in infections from COVID-19.

Labor Department data released on Friday showed that figure was up from nearly 1.7 million in December. The survey for January’s report was conducted during the week of Jan. 9-15, the week that infections driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant peaked in the United States. The data on absences from illness dates to 1976.

(Reporting By Dan Burns; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)