Unemployment is a disease.
It spreads through communities like an infection and hurts the health of the afflicted just
like a sickness.
That’s more than just a metaphor.
Unemployment has severe health consequences for those who struggle to find work.
Studies have shown over and over again that depression and anxiety result from unemployment.
Social dysfunction, substance abuse, and deaths of various causes are all shown to increase
dramatically among people affected by unemployment.
Risk of heart attack and stroke increases years after experiencing unemployment.
Mortality rates are increased as much as twenty years after a period of unemployment and as
many as 1 in 5 suicides are attributable to unemployment.
Not only do these symptoms take their toll on the individuals and their families, but
the symptoms multiply as these health impacts further reduce an individual’s chances of
success in finding work.
The demographic least able to find work are often the people who do not already have work.
Victims of unemployment become less and less likely to find employment the longer they
remain unemployed.
This affects young people as well as older people who have been ejected from the workforce.
It’s a Catch 22: they need to find employment to make themselves more employable, but they’re
not employable enough to find employment.
Even with work experience, the data shows that people will struggle to find work for
no reason beyond their race, gender, disability, or even if they’re a single parent.
Studies have shown that the negative health consequences of unemployment are not always
solved by replacing the income of the unemployed.
Research indicates that more than three quarters of the health impacts of unemployment continue
even when individuals are provided with subsistence income.
The critical factor in reducing the impact of unemployment is not replacement of income,
but maintenance of support networks, social engagement and finding personal meaning and
purpose are also crucial.
Even employment protections can help to benefit the unemployed.
When unions are available to support unemployed workers from their industry, and governments
install policies to minimise the effects of unemployment, the health effects that result
from unemployment can be reduced.
The detrimental effects of unemployment are suffered only partially as a result of a loss
of income, but the even greater effect is the loss of meaning, community and the mutual
support networks established through work.
It doesn’t just affect the unemployed individuals either.
The more unemployed people there are, the more likely the numbers of unemployed people
are to grow.
Unemployment causes unemployment.
During economic crises unemployment doesn’t hit all at once.
It can be seen to spread as one area becomes unemployed and so spends less into the surrounding
economy, which in turn also suffers job losses leading to further impact in neighbouring
areas.
Unemployment is like a virus that infects not just one person, but the people around
them as well.
Even if the initial group is able to recover, the effects felt by their crisis may continue
to ripple throughout the country for years to come.
Unemployment is not an inevitable reality of life.
There is always work to be done to make a better tomorrow.
Leaving people wasted for political anxiety only serves to keep us teetering on the edge
of further damage as unemployment spreads from one area to the next, destroying economies,
health, dignity and lives on it’s way.
We can have full employment for the good of everyone who wants employment.
With their labour we can work together for a better world.