Description/Abstract

The types of industries that dominate employment in a county shape the health of the entire community, even for people who don't work in those sectors. This brief summarizes findings of a study that examined how five major employment sectors—agriculture, manufacturing, mining and construction, services, and professional services—were associated with overall county-level mortality rates and with mortality from drug overdoses, suicides, alcohol-related causes, and cardiometabolic disease among U.S. adults ages 25-64 from 2000 to 2022 Data are from the National Vital Statistics System and County Business Patterns. Findings show that the effects of local industries shift vary across time and cause of death. Manufacturing employment was once protective, but its benefits have diminished over time, while service sector employment has become increasingly linked to higher mortality rates, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Document Type

Research Brief

Keywords

Working-age mortality, industry composition, deindustrialization

Disciplines

Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Rural Sociology | Sociology | Work, Economy and Organizations

Date

10-28-2025

Language

English

Acknowledgements

Research reported in this study was supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number R01AG082699, and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the NIH under Award Number U01DA055972. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIA, NIDA or NIH.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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