Unemployment Can To Serious Long-term Health Woes: U.S. Study

A recent study by Penn State University has shown that a person’s experience with unemployment in his 20s, 30s and 40s has a significant impact on their health later in life. This might be partly due to the fact that they did not have access to health care when they were jobless SciTechDaily reported on August 5, 2022.

Photo Insert: Individuals who had regular unemployment from their mid-20s to late-40s had significantly poorer physical and mental health by the age of 50.

In contrast to those who experienced very little unemployment throughout their careers, the researchers discovered that people who frequently experienced unemployment in their mid-to-late-20s and early-30s but had little experience of it after the age of 35 had worse physical and mental health by the age of 50.

Furthermore, individuals who had regular unemployment from their mid-20s to late-40s had significantly poorer physical and mental health by the age of 50. The team was comprised of Dr. Adrianne Frech, Dr. Sarah Damaske, and Dr. Adrienne Ohler.

The study was recently published in the Journal of Aging and Health.

The researchers analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which included information on 6,434 participants who were interviewed every other year between the ages of 27 and 49 about the number of weeks they’d spent employed, unemployed, or out of work the previous year.

The participants also filled out questionnaires about their physical and mental health at ages 40 and 50.

After analyzing the data, the researchers identified three main groups or trajectories that the participants tended to follow.

The “consistently low” trajectory comprised 70 percent of the sample and included participants who experienced the least unemployment at every age. The “decreasing mid-career” group made up 18 percent of the sample and experienced most of their unemployment before the age of 35.

“Persistently high” comprised the remaining 12 percent and included participants who were the most likely to be unemployed across all ages.

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