The Far-Reaching Impact of Job Loss and Unemployment

Abstract

Job loss is an involuntary disruptive life event with a far-reaching impact on workers’ life trajectories. Its incidence among growing segments of the workforce, alongside the recent era of severe economic upheaval, has increased attention to the effects of job loss and unemployment. As a relatively exogenous labor market shock, the study of displacement enables robust estimates of associations between socioeconomic circumstances and life outcomes. Research suggests that displacement is associated with subsequent unemployment, long-term earnings losses, and lower job quality; declines in psychological and physical well-being; loss of psychosocial assets; social withdrawal; family disruption; and lower levels of children’s attainment and well-being. While reemployment mitigates some of the negative effects of job loss, it does not eliminate them. Contexts of widespread unemployment, although associated with larger economic losses, lessen the social-psychological impact of job loss. Future research should attend more fully to how the economic and social-psychological effects of displacement intersect and extend beyond displaced workers themselves.

Parental Joblessness and the Moderating Role of a University Degree on the School-to-Work Transition in Australia and the United States

“…The finding that parental joblessness is associated with slower school-to-work transitions is consistent with prior research on the intergenerational effects of parental unemployment, which largely suggest that children are harmed by involuntary losses in parental employment and resources (Kalil and Ziol-Guest, 2008;Oreopolous et al, 2008;Stevens and Schaller, 2011;Brand, 2015). The findings are also consistent with work on the intergenerational effects of paternal joblessness, whether voluntary or involuntary (Macmillan, 2014), and with the small body of research on the intergenerational effects of parental joblessness, which attempts to consider the simultaneous employment status of co-residing parents (Schoon, 2014;Gregg et al, 2017).…”

Taking lemons for a trial run: Does type of job exit affect the risk of entering fixed-term employment in Germany?

“…Arulampalam, 2001;Brand, 2006;Brand, 2015;Gangl, 2004;Gangl, 2006;Ruhm, 1991). Within the setting of unemployment scarring, Gibbons and Katz (1991) use job exit types to test hypotheses about signalling effects on income.…”

L’impact du chômage sur la santé

“…Il faut d'abord souligner que le problème du chômage revêt deux aspects dont les effets sur la santé peuvent être, en partie, distincts [20] : la perte d'emploi qui est l'événement brusque survenant à un moment donné de manière plus ou moins inattendue, et la période de chô-mage proprement dite plus ou moins longue qui s'ensuit et qui fait l'objet de cet article. Pour analyser les relations complexes entre le chômage et l'état de santé [21], il est utile de distinguer trois types d'études : celles principalement évoquées ici, qui suggèrent que les problèmes de santé sont une conséquence directe ou indirecte du chômage et que ce lien causal dépend de facteurs de risque spécifiques [22][23][24] ; celles montrant qu'il existe également un lien causal inverse, à savoir qu'une mauvaise santé augmente le risque de devenir chômeur [25][26][27] ; enfin, celles rappelant que les problèmes de santé sont aussi le résultat d'un environnement social et/ou d'un mode de vie délétères qui favorisent en même temps la survenue de périodes d'accès aux soins, seront quelque peu atténués [40].…”