Rising unemployment due to the economic downturn is spreading.
(usually followed by `to') able to be assigned or credited to; "punctuation errors ascribable to careless proofreading"; "the cancellation of the concert was due to the rain"; "the oversight was not imputable to him"; "decide to which of these motives such extraordinary scenes are referable"- Charles Dickens
Due to has been widely used for many years as a compound preposition like owing to, but some critics have insisted that due should be used only as an adjective. According to this view, it is incorrect to say The concert was canceled due to the rain, but acceptable to say The cancellation of the concert was due to the rain, where due continues to function as an adjective modifying cancellation. This seems a fine point, however, and since due to is widely used and understood, there seems little reason to avoid using it as a preposition. because of something