Losing Your Job Could Kill You, But Recessions Could Be Good For Your Health

http://www.drexel.edu/now/news-media/releases/archive/2014/July/Unemployment-Study/

July 24, 2014

Being unemployed increases your risk of death, but recessions decrease it. Sound paradoxical? Researchers thought so too.

While previous studies of individuals have shown that employees who lose their jobs have a higher mortality rate, more comprehensive studies have shown, unexpectedly, that population mortality actually declines as unemployment rates increase. The research community has often rejected one of these effects because it conflicted with the other, so researchers from Drexel University and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor set out to better understand these seemingly contradictory findings.
- See more at: http://www.drexel.edu/now/news-media/releases/archive/2014/July/Unemployment-Study/#sthash.O3aagRjP.dpuf

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The findings reveal that job loss is associated with a 73 percent increase in the probability of death – the equivalent of adding 10 years to a person’s age. However, this increased risk affects only the minority of people who are unemployed and is outweighed by health-promoting effects of an economic slowdown that affect the entire population, such as a drop in traffic fatalities and reduced atmospheric pollution. The researchers found that each percentage-point increase in the individual’s state unemployment rate reduces the hazard of death by approximately 9 percent, which is about the equivalent of making a person one year younger.

“Most people believe that being unemployed is a bad thing,” said lead author José Tapia, PhD, an economist and population health researcher in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences. “But what many people don’t realize is that economic expansions – which usually reduce joblessness – also have effects that are harmful for society at large.”

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"The increase in the risk of death associated with being unemployed is very strong," said Tapia, "but it is restricted to unemployed persons, who generally are a small fraction of the population, even in a severe recession. Compared with the increase in the risk of death among the unemployed, the decrease of the mortality risk associated with a weakening economy is small, but the benefit spreads across the entire adult population. The compound result of both effects is that total mortality rises in expansions and falls in recessions."

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“Other potential causes for the decrease of mortality risk during recessions could be changes in levels of stress and risk of injury in the working environment,” said Tapia. “During economic expansions, work is done at a faster pace, more employees are commuting, workers have less average sleep, and so on – all of which can be linked to higher risk of heart attacks, vehicle crashes, industrial injuries and enhanced circulation of germs. All of this reverses in recessions.” - See more at: http://www.drexel.edu/now/news-media/releases/archive/2014/July/Unemployment-Study/#sthash.O3aagRjP.dpuf