Though the majority of the research points to serious adverse consequences from unemployment, there are indications that job loss for some workers under certain circumstances may not be distressing and may even be a positive experience. Blue- collar workers laid off by plant closings showed few lasting psychological or stress- related problems over the two-year period of displacement, unemployment and re-hiring through which they were followed by research workers Stanislav Kasl and Sidney Cobb. The working men in this study generally showed brief, initial responses to stress—increased depression, anxiety and raised blood pressure—most evident during the phase of anticipation prior to unemployment. Kasl suggests that these men showed few damaging effects from unemployment because many had given up the idea that their monotonous jobs were meaningful or important.101
Researchers Ramsay Liem and Paula Rayman countered with the suggestion that Kasl and Cobb’s findings were undramatic because the unemployment circumstances of the men in their sample were not severe. In his own study of blue-collar and white-collar families in which the husband lost his job, Liem found significant increases in psychiatric symptoms in both the men and their wives and signs of mounting family distress. Symptoms increased as unemployment continued but receded after re-employment. The response to job loss was greater in this sample than in Kasl and Cobb’s study, argued Liem, because the period of unemployment was much longer, the local economy was severely depressed and job prospects were poorer. Plant closings such as Kasl and Cobb studied, furthermore, may create a type of unemployment in which self- blame is less prominent.102
Liem’s interpretation of these findings is borne out by a study of middle-class, unemployed men conducted by sociologist Craig Little. Nearly half of the men in this sample had a somewhat more positive response to unemployment; these were more likely to be the men who were optimistic about re-employment, had not
been out of work long and who were in a better financial situation. Kasl’s point is also supported, however, since the more positive responses came from men whose prior job satisfaction had been low.103
The context in which job loss occurs clearly affects the response of the unemployed. Acknowledging this point, we may also recognize that the consequences of unemployment are usually distinctly harmful. Evidence on the damaging effects of unemployment began to accumulate during the Great Depression. Two researchers reviewing the topic in 1938, after compiling more than a hundred reports, observed that unemployment could lead to emotional instability, depression, hopelessness, distrust, domestic problems, narrowed activities and apathy.104 More refined modern studies confirm these findings; the
introduction of higher levels of financial support for the unemployed does not appear to have reduced the impact of joblessness.
Paula Rayman and Barry Bluestone’s study of job loss in the American aircraft industry found unemployment to be linked to serious signs of strain such as alcoholism, raised blood pressure, increased smoking and anxiety.105 Plant closings
in Appalachia brought depression and sickness to the redundant employees.106 A
British study noted increasing general symptomatology in unemployed young men.107 Older American workers laid off after years of stable employment
responded with more ill health than those in a control group, a sense of powerlessness and loss of initiative.108
As unemployment spread in the late 1980s and early 1990s, fresh reports came in from around the world. A survey of Finnish manufacturing workers demonstrated a strong link between unemployment and mental ill health.109
German furniture factory employees who lost their jobs were eight times more likely to report poor psychological health if they remained unemployed for a year.110 Scottish school-leavers who became unemployed showed intellectual,
emotional and behavioral deterioration whereas those who went on to a job or training improved or were stable.111 A series of British studies indicated that
unemployed people were more depressed and anxious and had less self-esteem and self-confidence; the worst affected were middle-aged men, middle-class people, those who lived in low unemployment areas and people with a strong work ethic.112 A study conducted in Michigan found that unemployment may lead to
depression, anxiety and poor physical health via two routes—increased financial strain and an increased vulnerability to life-event stress.113 A Swedish study
revealed a physiological basis for the increased vulnerability to stress; unemployment is associated with changes in the person’s immune system and dramatically elevated levels of the hormone cortisol.114
Some studies point to harmful effects from both job stress and unemployment. The survey of members of the Swedish construction workers’ union, mentioned above, found joblessness and dissatisfaction with work to be associated with an increased accident rate; unemployment and changes at work increased the risk of neurosis.115 In the study of Toronto residents, job loss and demotion at work
modern labor dynamics can be unhealthy for both employed and unemployed workers.
SUICIDE
Analysis of suicide patterns yields more evidence of the destructive effect of labor dynamics and especially of unemployment. All authorities are agreed that suicide rates peak during economic recessions and have done so throughout the century.117 The unemployment index is the strongest predictor of changes in the
suicide rate, having a greater impact on male suicide rates118 and on older people
of working age.119 One researcher, Albert Pierce, asserted that suicide statistics
show an increase whenever the economy fluctuates up or down,120 but later
attempts to replicate his work have found unemployment to be more important than absolute economic change.121 The view of Emile Durkheim, the early
French sociologist, that “fortunate crises…affect suicide like economic disasters”122 has not been borne out. His claim, however, that work protects
against suicide does appear to be supported by the data.
Throughout the industrial world suicide is more common in the elderly123 and
is higher in retired men than in working men of the same age.124 The pattern of
increasing suicide with age holds true for white Americans; but for blacks and especially American Indians, who experience high levels of unemployment early in life, the suicide rate shows a peak in the young-adult years (see Figure 2.4). The Indian reservations with the highest suicide rates are those with the most severe problems of unemployment, alcoholism and traditional family disintegration.125 Suicide is more common among those in the lower-income,
lower-status jobs where employment is least secure.126 Economic stress could
account for many of these findings, or the absence of a socially endorsed useful role (in middle-class whites, a problem most common in late life) could be an important precipitant of suicide. That the current picture is a response to changes accompanying the growth of wage work is supported by a study of suicide in Hong Kong. Before industrialization, Chinese suicide was more common in younger adults; industrial development has brought declining prestige, changed roles and a steep rise in suicide to the elderly of the modern city.127
The circumstances of individual suicide victims suggest that joblessness, work problems and economic difficulties may all be critical stresses. Studies have generally found around a quarter to a third or more of suicide victims to be unemployed—a substantially higher rate than in the general population or in control groups.128 For example, a large-scale study of bricklayers and carpenters in
Denmark found more unemployment in the recent background of workers suffering violent deaths from both accident or suicide.129 In addition, a pattern of
frequent job changes, job dissatisfaction and downward mobility can often be uncovered in the history of suicide victims.130 Which comes first -the emotional
problems or the work difficulties? Two controlled studies have tried to tackle this question by examining unemployment rates in psychiatric patients who
committed suicide versus those who did not: both studies found an association between unemployment and suicide for men.131 In many cases it is clear that
unemployment and job instability is a result of poor physical or mental health;132
but we should not expect a simple one-way relationship. Impaired performance or loss of work role may well damage self-esteem and increase hopelessness and depression. The central role of the workplace in this relationship for those who are employed is revealed by the repeated finding that suicide (like sudden cardiac death) is most common on Mondays, declining in frequency as the week progresses.133
It is clear that the job market and the economy have a direct and decisive impact on our patterns of living, our view of ourselves and our emotions. Since this is so, we might reasonably expect the economy to influence the onset of serious mental illness and to affect the rate of admission to psychiatric hospital.