The trauma of long-term unemployment: Losing your job is just the start

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.walletpop.com/2010/10/27/the-trauma-of-long-term-unemployment-losing-your-job-is-just-th/?a_dgi=aolshare_facebook

There are now millions of people who are in the long-term, figure-out-how-to-pay-your-bills-yourself jobless category. And while the government may choose not to count them because they no longer are eligible to collect unemployment checks, researchers are at least acknowledging they exist -- and have turned to history to see what happens to them emotionally.

What they found isn't pretty.



Researchers found that the long-term unemployed will suffer deep mental and emotional scars from the experience.

A Gallup study in the Economic Journal found that those who were out of work for at least a year took longer to recover emotionally than those who had lost a spouse. The results showed quantifiable declines in their health, their self-esteem and their overall emotional well-being.

When the steel industry collapsed in Pennsylvania, the 80,000-strong steel industry workforce shrank to just 4,000 jobs by 1987. Studies of that group found that the life expectancies of those who lost their jobs after age 40 decreased by up to a year and a half. And laid-off Pennsylvanians saw a 15% to 20% reduction in lifetime earnings.


More at the link --