The US unemployment rate is down

People are getting back to work in many parts of the country. In September, the unemployment rate dropped nationwide as the US added 194,000 jobs. Here’s a glimpse at what the newest unemployment numbers say:

• Leisure and hospitality, a sector that didn’t add any jobs in August, led September job growth. The sector accounted for 21.8% of new jobs.

• Only Massachusetts had an uptick in its unemployment rate, up 0.2 percentage points to 5.2% in September. The unemployment rate fell in 27 other states and stayed the same in 22 states.
   
• All states reported nonfarm payroll employment increases from September 2020 to September 2021. Hawaii’s nonfarm jobs grew by 13%. Nevada had the second-highest growth: 6.6%.

Did the unemployment rate drop in your state? Get the answer here. And for more on the nation’s path back from the coronavirus pandemic, visit the COVID-19 Impact and Recovery Hub.   


Understanding COVID-19 & contributing death factors 

When someone passes away while fighting COVID-19, is the virus automatically the cause of death? Not necessarily. It depends on what their medical examiner lists on their death certificate, which in turn shapes
how the nation determines how many Americans have officially died from COVID-19. USAFacts has a brief rundown of the process.

• Death certificates require an outline of all the health complications that directly caused a death. The list might have multiple illnesses or injuries, but it ends with the principle underlying cause. The medical examiner only includes COVID-19 on a death certificate if it directly led to a person’s death.
   
• Another section of the death certificate lists significant conditions that contributed to a death without necessarily causing it. Obesity and hypertension, for example, aren’t considered causes of death but may worsen the effects of the eventual cause.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention track conditions that help contribute to COVID-19 deaths. Out of 708,000 US virus deaths between January 1, 2020 and October 9, 2021, 48% of certificates cited the flu or pneumonia as leading contributors, 39% cited respiratory failures, 39% cited hypertension, and 16% cited diabetes.

Read the report for more, including the top causes of death in the US since 2015.

USAFacts goes to Washington

On October 27, USAFacts President Poppy MacDonald testified before the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress to share how government data can be more widely shared and used among lawmakers to improve and inform public policy. USAFacts was honored to be part of this important discussion. Click here to watch Poppy’s testimony along with Nick Hart, president of the Data Foundation, and Tara Dawson McGuinness, fellow and senior adviser for New America.


One last fact