14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists were recently able to determine that job loss has unexpected consequences on people's level of mental health. Previous investigations have already established that unemployment and job loss are linked to each other directly, but the new survey looks at how mental health in general is related to losing a job. This is unfortunately a good time to study such correlations in the United States, as about 9.7 percent of the workforce is currently without jobs, LiveScience reports.
According to the conclusions of the study, which was conducted by the renowned Gallup organization, it would appear that the vast majority of people in the US who are at this point either unemployed, or underemployed, tend to describe themselves as “struggling.” The same individuals also exhibit a higher probability of experiencing feelings of sadness, worrying more about the future, and also reporting some of the symptoms generally associated with depression. The new investigation was basically an assessment of the relationships that form between economic trends and psychological well-being.
“The finding is very, very consistent that higher unemployment is related to higher incidence of serious mental disorder and depression,” explains professor of public health Harvey Brenner, who holds a joint appointment, at the Johns Hopkins University, and also at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. For the purpose of this survey, employment was considered a term applied to part-time workers content with their schedules, as well as to full-time employees. Underemployment was a term applied to people who were either working a part-time job and wanted a full-time one, or to unemployed people who really wanted a job.
During the investigation, researchers working at Gallup analyzed more than 40,000 Americans, all of them adults. The questionnaires were meant to gage their emotional status, their daily activities, as well as whether or not they were employed. It was determined that 46 percent of the unemployed were very likely to be very worried about the future, while 27 percent of them said that they were sad. “Unemployment can be a mixed bag. It can be a downright good thing if the job you're getting away from is extremely difficult and unpleasant. It's not surprising that some people report that they're satisfied. They're finding useful and beneficial things to do with their increased time,” concludes University of California in Irvine (UCI) psychology and social behavior professor David Dooley.