While paying a visit to a few small towns in the northeast U.S. over the last month, I noticed a slew of stores had posted “Help Wanted” posters next to the now-familiar “Mask Up!” signs. Between reports of worker shortages and a dropping unemployment rate, it’s clear that workers now have greater leverage when facing employers than they did just a year ago. As my colleague Jamie Ducharme reports, the U.S. is experiencing something of a “Great Resignation” as a growing number of dissatisfied employees leave their jobs: just in August, more than 4.2 million people resigned, which translates to the highest monthly rate since the agency started recording such figures in 2000. That trend appears to be driven by workers who were too fearful to quit in the chaos of 2020, but who now feel comfortable with a bit more uncertainty, as well as a growing number of people who are stressed by or frustrated with their careers.
For many companies, this dynamic has led them to take a closer look at ways to improve employee satisfaction, including addressing burnout, which Jamie describes as “a cocktail of work-related stress, exhaustion, cynicism and negativity that is surging during the pandemic.”
While there isn’t an easy solution for burnout, research by social psychologist Christina Maslach has found that businesses can do a lot to improve conditions: ensuring workloads are manageable; granting workers control in their jobs; treating workers fairly; and recognizing and rewarding good work. And, importantly, by asking employees themselves what would improve their working conditions. The risk to employers if they don’t make an effort is very real: a Deloitte study before the pandemic found 42% of respondents said burnout had driven them to leave a job at some point in their past.
Jamie told me that when she started reporting on burnout, she initially looked at it from the perspective of how workers themselves can try to reduce it, but ultimately realized that this passed too much of the burden to employees. “It can be reductive and dismissive to frame burnout as something that individual people can ‘fix,’” Jamie says. “The change really needs to come from the top, so it's encouraging that companies are finally starting to take it seriously.”
More than 239.1 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and nearly 4.9 million people have died. On Oct. 13, there were 425,149 new cases and 7,940 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 4.5 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded nearly 44.7 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. Nearly 720,000 people have died. On Oct. 13, there were 120,321 new cases and 3,054 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Oct. 14, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended a half-dose of Moderna’s vaccine as a booster shot for people over 65 as well as adults with health conditions and/or who work in places that would create a higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness. The committee, made up of independent experts, voted unanimously in favor of the recommendation. The FDA is not required to follow the committee’s recommendation, but is expected to do so.
Health officials throughout Africa report that vaccination hesitancy may be keeping women from getting their shots, the Associated Press reports, noting that women in the region have expressed concern that the vaccines could threaten their pregnancies or fertility or fearful that side effects will force them to miss work. There is no evidence that the current vaccines can harm a growing fetus or impact a woman’s fertility; meanwhile, pregnant women are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness. But officials say misinformation about the vaccines is pervasive on the continent, which is likely driving this trend.
Almost one in five U.S. households put off receiving health care for a serious illness over the last few months, NPR reports, with the majority reporting that the delays caused negative health outcomes, according to a new poll from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and NPR. Recently, some hospitals have been forced to ration care as they’ve been inundated with COVID-19 patients, many of whom are unvaccinated.
Unemployment in the U.S. dropped to the lowest level since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, the Department of Labor reported today. The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9% during the week ending Oct. 2, down 0.1 percentage points from the week before; about 2,593,000 people were under insured unemployment that week, the lowest since March 14, 2020, when it was 1,770,000. Seasonally adjusted initial claims also dropped, from 329,000 to 293,000, the lowest since March 14, 2020.
South Korea announced Tuesday it will donate nearly 1.6 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Vietnam and Thailand this week, the New York Times reports. After initial concerns that South Korea’s vaccine rollout was too slow early this year, it gradually picked up steam; the country is now set to reach a 70% vaccination rate by the end of the month. However, Thailand and Vietnam have vaccinated only about 33% and 17% of their populations, respectively.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Tara Law and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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