Unemployment, Social Networks, and Health Inequalities

Abstract

The loss of employment is an event that interferes with the lives of everyone affected, causes stress, and can have a negative impact on their health. Meta-analyses show that unemployed people have a worse state of health and a mortality risk that is at least 1.6 times higher than those who are employed. Unemployment is associated with a lower mental and physical health status and, in some cases, with riskier health behavior (particularly tobacco consumption). There are two important theses on the role of social networks in this context: (1) Unemployment changes social networks so that they no longer fulfill their positive function for health (mediator thesis); (2) Unemployment leaves social networks unchanged and persons with resource-rich networks suffer less from health losses due to unemployment (moderator thesis). This article provides an overview of empirical analyses on the topic of networks and unemployment.

Disruptive life events and health

“…In sum, the different chapters of this dissertation align with recent studies pointing at a broadening of health inequalities in the past years [37], providing rich evidence on the specific cases of unemployment and the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this dissertation makes several relevant methodological contributions.…”

“…Thus, unemployment may lead to lack of professional experience, gaps in the curriculum vitae, or other factors that may seriously hamper professional achievement [33]. On the other hand, unemployment may also threaten psychological and social resources [34], such as self-esteem, perceived control over one's life [28], or one's social network [35], all of which can be regarded as key psychosocial determinants of health and well-being [36,37].…”