In 2020, Labor Day was celebrated with a kind of asterisk.

Sure, there could be relaxation, but amid a pandemic, it was a little tense. There could be picnics, but with masks and social distancing, they weren’t quite the same.

There could be an honoring of the workforce, but it came amid the kind of unemployment that hadn’t been seen since the Great Depression.

This year, it was a little different.

The first Monday in September — the day the federal government has been honoring workers since 1894 — finds more people back on the job. However there is widespread demand for people to fill vacant positions, too.

And on Saturday, three federal programs to help cushion the impact of COVID-19’s effect on jobs ran out. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Assistance and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation came to an end.

For more than a year, we have struggled to put the economy back on solid footing while restraining the disease. What has been necessary to do both? People to do the hard work. As the coronavirus numbers rise again with the delta variant, workers are just as important.

Every year we have this opportunity to take the day off, to take a break, to celebrate not just the fact that we have jobs but that sometimes, we get to stay home from them. But do people actually appreciate how workers keep the wheels turning in our world?

The last year has afforded that perspective. From grocery store employees and factory workers to intensive care nurses and emergency room doctors, we have seen how important our jobs are not just to the businesses where we work but to the other people in our communities.

Sometimes people dismiss workers as nameless, faceless cogs in a machine. But just one broken part can bring a massive machine to a grinding halt. The millions of people put out of work in 2020 showed how the complex machinery of the economy likewise depends on every piece working together.

If you have a job, thank you for doing it. If you need a job, good luck finding that perfect fit. If you are retired, congratulations on doing your part. And we hope everyone had a great Labor Day.

— The Tribune-Review/TNS