Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T19:13:07.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unemployment is a Health Hazard: The Health Costs of Unemployment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Elizabeth Harris  and
Mary Morrow
Elizabeth Harris
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation, Liverpool Hospital
Mary Morrow
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation, Liverpool Hospital
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Unemployment is a health hazard. There is increasing Australian and international evidence that people who are unemployed are more likely to have higher rates of mortality, morbidity (illness) and use of health services. The large numbers of people who are unemployed mean that the impacts of unemployment are just not felt at individual or family level but across the population as a whole. This paper outlines the evidence of the impact of unemployment on health and discusses some of the ways in which these health problems could be addressed through reorientation of health services, developing the skills of people who are unemployed, strengthening community action, creating environments that support people who are unemployed and their families, and the development of public policy. It discusses some of the difficulties in undertaking research in this area and calls for a more systematic approach to understanding the cost of unemployment.

Type
Meeting Report
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , June 2001 , pp. 18 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2001

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (1997) Australian social trends 1997. ABS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Council of Social Service (2000) Overview of Employment and Unemployment 1999–2000. ACOSS INFO 214, August.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (1993) Australian’s Welfare 1993. Services and Assistance, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (1998) Australian’s Health 1998. The sixth Biennial Health Report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, AIHW, Canberra.Google Scholar
Brenner, S-O, Starrin, B. (1988) Unemployment and health in Sweden: Public Issues and private troubles. Journal of Social Issues, Vol 4, 125–44.Google Scholar
Brief, A.P., Konovsky, M.A., Goodwin, R., Link, K. (1995) Inferring the meaning of work from the effects of unemployment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol 25, 693–711.Google Scholar
Catalano, R., Dooley, D., Wilson, G., Hough, R. (1993) Job loss and alcohol abuse: A test using data from the ECAP. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, Vol 34, 215–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catalano, R., Novaco, R., McConnell, W. (1997) A model of the net effect of job loss on violence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 72, 1440–1447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claussen, B., Bjorndal, A., Hjort, P.F. (1993) Health and Re-employment in a Two Year Follow up of Long Term Unemployed. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 47; 14–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fergusson, D.M., Horwood, L.J., Lynskey, M.T. (1997) The effects of unemployment on psychiatric illness during young adulthood. Psychological Medicine, Vol 27, 371–381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finlay-Jones, R., Eckhardt, B. (1981) Psychiatric disorder among the young unemployed. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 15, 265–270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frese, M., Mohr, G. (1987) Prolonged unemployment and depression in older workers: A longitudinal study of intervening variables. Social Science Medicine, Vol 25, 173–178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grant, S. and Barling, J. (1994) Linking unemployment experiences, depressive symptoms and martial functioning: A mediational model. In Keita, G.P. and Hurrell, J.J. Jr. (eds) Job stress in a changing work force: Investigation gender, diversity and family issues, Washington, DC: APA, pp. 311–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammarstrom, A. (1994) Health consequences of youth unemployment — review from a gender perspective. Social Science and Medicine, 38, 699–709.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, E., Webster, I., Harris, M., Lee, P. (1998) Unemployment and Health: the Healthcare system’s role. Medical Journal of Australia, Vol 168, 16 March.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iversen, L., Andersen, O., Andersen, P.K., Christoffersen, R., Keiding, N. (1987) Unemployment and Mortality in Denmark, 1970–80. BMJ, Vol 295, 878–884.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, P., Warr, P. (1987) Mental health of unemployed men in different parts of England and Wales. BMJ, Vol 295: 525.Google ScholarPubMed
Jamrozik, A. (1995) Unemployment and Social Justice: Do the Unemployed Carry the Burden of Society’s Guilt? In Hicks, R., Creed, P., Patton, W. and Tomlinson, J. (Eds), Unemployment: Developments and Transitions, Australian Academic Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Jones, L. (1991/92) Specifying the temporal relationship between job loss and consequences: Implications for service delivery. Journal of Applied Social Science, Vol 16, 37–62.Google Scholar
Lahelma, E., Kangas, R., Manderbacka, K. (1995) Drinking and unemployment: Contrasting patterns among men and women. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Vol 37, 71–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, G., Sloggett, A. (1998) Suicide, deprivation, and unemployment: record linkage study. British Medical Journal, 317: 1283–1286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liem, R., Liem, J.H. (1988) Psychological effects of unemployment on workers and their families. Journal of Social Issues, Vol 44, 87–105.Google Scholar
Lobo, F., Watkins, G. (1995) Late career unemployment in the 1990s: Its impact on the family. Journal of Family Studies, Vol 1, 103–113.Google Scholar
Malcolm, D. (2000) London: Health Spending is an Economic and Social Investment, The Lancet, Vol 355 (9209), 1081.Google Scholar
Martikainen, P.T. (1990) Unemployment and mortality among Finnish men, 1981–5. British Medical Journal, Vol 301, 407–411.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martikainen, P.T., Valkonen, T. (1998) The effects of differential unemployment rate increases of occupation groups on changes in mortality. American Journal of Public Health, Vol 88, No 12, 1859–1861.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mastekaasa, A. (1996) Unemployment and health: Selection effects. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 6, 189–205.Google Scholar
Mathers, C.D. (1994) Health differentials among Australians aged 25–64 years. AIHW (Health Monitoring Series No. 1), Canberra.Google Scholar
Mathers, C.D. (1995) Health differentials among Australian children. AIHW (Health Monitoring Series No. 3), Canberra.Google Scholar
Mathers, C.D., Scholfield, D. (1998) The health consequences of unemployment: the evidence. Medical Journal of Australia, Vol 168, 178–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattiasson, I., Lindgarde, F., Nilsson, J.A., Theorell, T. (1990) Threat of unemployment and cardiovascular risk factors: Longitudinal study of quality of sleep and serum cholesterol concentrations in men threatened with redundancy. BMJ, 301 (6750), 461–466.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morrell, S., Taylor, R., Kerr, C. (1998) Unemployment and young people’s health. Medical Journal of Australia, Vol 168, 2 March.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morris, J.K., Cook, D.G., Sharper, A.G. (1992) Non-employment and changes in smoking, drinking and body weight. BMJ, Vol 304, 536–541.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moser, K.A., Fox, A.J., Jones, D.R. (1984) Unemployment and mortality in the OPCS Longitudinal study 197. Lancet, Vol 2, 1324–1329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moser, K.A., Fox, A.J., Jones, D. R., Goldblatt, P.O. (1987) Unemployment and Health: Further evidence from the OPCS Longitudinal study 1971–81. Lancet, Vol 2, 365–366.Google Scholar
National Health Strategy (1992) Enough to make you sick: how income and environment affect health. Melbourne: National Health Strategy, (Research Paper No.1).Google Scholar
Newman, J. (Minister for Family and Community Services) (2000) The Challenge of Welfare Dependency in the 21st Century. Discussion Paper.Google Scholar
Perrucci, C.C. and Targ, D.B. (1988) Effects of a plant closing on marriage and family life. In Voydanoff, P. and Majka, L. (Eds), Families and economic distress: Coping strategies and social policy. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 55–71.Google Scholar
Saunders, P. (1994) Welfare and inequality. National and International Perspectives on the Australian Welfare State, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Smith, R. (1987) Unemployment and Health: a disaster and a challenge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stack, S. (1981) Divorce and suicide: A time series analysis, 1933–1970. Journal of family issues. Vol 2, 77–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Starrin, B., Larson, G. (1987) Coping with Unemployment — A Contribution to the Understanding of Womans’ Unemployment. Social Science and Medicine, 25 (2), 163–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stefansson, C.G. (1991) Long-term unemployment and mortality in Sweden, 1980–86. Social Science and Medicine, 32, 419–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinberg, L., Catalano, R., Dooley, D. (1981) Economic antecedents of child abuse and neglect. Child Development, Vol 52, 260–67.Google ScholarPubMed
Warr, P. (1987) Work Unemployment and Mental Health. Oxford: Oxford Science.Google Scholar
Warr, P.B., Jackson, P.R. (1987) Adapting to the Unemployed Role: A Longitudinal Investigation. Social Science and Medicine, Vol 25 No. 11, 1219–1224.Google Scholar
Weich, S., Lewis, Glyn (1998) Poverty, Unemployment and common mental disorders: population based cohort study. BMJ, Vol 317, 115–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westin, S. (1990) The Structure of a Factory Closure: Individual Responses to Job Loss and Unemployment in a 10 Year Controlled Follow-Up Study. Social Science and Medicine, 31 (12), 1301–1311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitside, N. (1988) Unemployment and Health; a historical perspective. Journal of Social Policy, 17, 177–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuen, P., Balarajan, R. (1989) Unemployment and patterns of consultation with the general practitioner, BMJ, Vol 298, 1212–1214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed