(Reuters] – In the United States, fewer workers were unable work in the past four weeks as a result of COVID-19. More people reported being unable find jobs due to those concerns.

The survey found that approximately 5.03million people couldn’t work in September. They also reported reduced working hours as a result of their business closing completely or cutting back on operations. That is down from 5.65 millions in the preceding month. Since December, the August figure was up for the first time since then.

However, the proportion of those who stated they didn’t look for work due to COVID-19 fear rose slightly from 1.52million the previous month. This highlights the uneven nature and pace of job recovery.

Statistics are drawn from an ongoing household survey that the U.S. government has conducted since the start of the pandemic. In September, U.S. employment growth was much lower than anticipated due to a drop in government payrolls. This is the second straight month with disappointing results.

Shawn Cruz is a senior market strategist for TD Ameritrade Jersey City. He stated, “The survey week was early September, and that’s where we still had some pretty major concerns regarding the Delta variant.”

Most economists believe that the U.S. will experience a significant increase in job growth over the next months. These economists cite decreasing COVID-19 cases, fewer childcare restrictions with the return to in-person education and the expiration of federally-funded pandemic unemployment benefit benefits.

More than 6 million people were affected by the benefits. They provided unemployment payments to those who could not receive regular state jobsless benefits. But, firms and Republicans blamed them for worker shortages.

Last month’s numbers of people who claimed they had teleworked in recent times due to the pandemic were largely unchanged at 20.35million, down from 20.56million.