(WTVO) — The COVID-19 National Health Emergency came to an end this week, but the labor market could still feel the impact for years to come.

Business experts said that, while spending is back up since the beginning of the pandemic, the labor force is now much smaller.

Research group Brookings Institution reported that 900,000 expected workers were “missing” in April. The U.S. population is 1.4 million people short of pre-pandemic estimates.

Researchers said that about 650,000 of the “missing” workers were attributed to deaths from COVID-19 or other reasons.