People who lose their jobs due to health reasons are more likely to suffer through phases of depression and detrimental health outcomes in comparison to those people who lose their jobs for reasons not related with health.

A recently concluded research study established these results with significant supportive evidences. The study also indicated that people who get reemployed immediately after losing their job show better health outcomes compared to the people who remain unemployed for a considerable time period.

Sarah Burgard, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Institute for Social Research and the School of Public Health said, “Re-employment appears to be the key factor for mitigating these health effects for people who lose their jobs either for health-related reasons or other reasons”.

Findings of this study help establishing a direct link between involuntary job loss and health consequences. However, the analyses do not explain about an employee’s pre-existing health or other related factors including socioeconomic background.

Researchers observed that the people who have lost their jobs and want to get back to work should possibly be extended assistance with an interim health insurance coverage, unemployment benefits, and re-employment programs. This must be an urgent requirement in cases of people having health problems that resulted in the loss of their jobs. However, “these traditional employment benefits were designed to meet the needs of workers in standard full-time jobs”, say the researchers.

Researchers also observed that jobs like part-time, temporary or short-term service industry jobs are fast replacing the traditionally established trends of full-time jobs in the manufacturing and other industries. These new generation jobs do not have normal health insurance coverage or unemployment insurance coverage. Meaning thereby, people working as part-time or with other contractual agreements are likely to face big challenges when it comes to re-employment.

Research findings indicate towards an emerging trend of non-standard contractual employment and this require a social and economic re-structuring of health insurance, unemployment benefits, and re-employment programs to meet the needs of a growing workforce.

This research study was conducted jointly by Sarah Burgard, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Institute for Social Research and the School of Public Health  , James House, Professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research, the Ford School of Public Policy and the Sociology Department, and Jennie Brand, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Findings of this research study have been published in the “Journal of Health and Social Behavior”.

Sarah Burgard and her co-researchers explored if involuntary job loss caused the health decline, or if pre-existing poor health or an acute negative health shock caused the job loss.

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