Associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and subsequent economic inactivity and employment status: pooled analyses of five linked longitudinal surveys.

Economic inactivity has increased following the pandemic.Infection with SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to lead to post-COVID-19 condition, which is associated with reduced working capacity and absences from work.It is unclear if infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to economic inactivity among those who were initially in employment just before the pandemic. Infection is only very weakly or not associated with economic inactivity and non-employment in people who were in employment just prior to the pandemic. Alternative explanations for the rise in economic inactivity need to be investigated such as long-term sickness.Possible biases introduced by linkage consent need considering when using linked healthcare data.