Unemployment and child abuse.

The employment state of men living in the homes of children at the time that child abuse was diagnosed was determined. The series included a wide range of abuse, including non-accidental injury, failure to thrive, neglect, and emotional deprivation. Two cohorts of children seen during 1974-9 and 1980-5 were compared; these periods were chosen because a large increase in unemployment began in Sheffield in 1980. Although the proportion of the men without work was significantly increased during the second period, this increase could not be ascribed to the rise in either long term or short term unemployment among those who had previously been in regular employment. It was accounted for by a rise in the proportions of single parent families and families in which the resident man had never had regular employment. This may reflect an increase in pregnancies among young mothers. There was no evidence to support the belief that the loss of a job in otherwise stable families leads to an increase in child abuse.     

Social Media Fingerprints of Unemployment

Recent widespread adoption of electronic and pervasive technologies has enabled the study of human behavior at an unprecedented level, uncovering universal patterns underlying human activity, mobility, and interpersonal communication. In the present work, we investigate whether deviations from these universal patterns may reveal information about the socio-economical status of geographical regions. We quantify the extent to which deviations in diurnal rhythm, mobility patterns, and communication styles across regions relate to their unemployment incidence. For this we examine a country-scale publicly articulated social media dataset, where we quantify individual behavioral features from over 19 million geo-located messages distributed among more than 340 different Spanish economic regions, inferred by computing communities of cohesive mobility fluxes. We find that regions exhibiting more diverse mobility fluxes, earlier diurnal rhythms, and more correct grammatical styles display lower unemployment rates. As a result, we provide a simple model able to produce accurate, easily interpretable reconstruction of regional unemployment incidence from their social-media digital fingerprints alone. Our results show that cost-effective economical indicators can be built based on publicly-available social media datasets.     

Unemployment and marital status in Great Britain.

During the past decade, the marriage rate has declined and the divorce rate has increased in Great Britain. Becker (1981) attributes such changes to improvements in the economic status of women, in that high-wage women gain less from marriage relative to other women. However, an empirical analysis of data from the General Household Survey 1985 in Great Britain shows that male unemployment is another important determinant of changes in marital status. High rates of male unemployment reduce the incidence of marriage and increase the likelihood of divorce.     

Unemployment and mortality in Denmark, 1970-80.

Relative mortality in the period 1970-80 was studied among Danish men and women who were unemployed and employed on the day of the 1970 census. The study population consisted of the total labour force in the age range 20-64 on 9 November 1970--that is, about 2 million employed and 22,000 unemployed people. Relative mortality was analysed by a multiplicative hazard regression model (as a natural extension of the standardised mortality ratio) and a multiplicative regression model with extra-Poisson variation. A significantly increased death rate (40-50%) was found among the unemployed after adjusting for occupation, housing category, geographical region, and marital state. Analysis of five main causes of death showed increased mortality from all causes, but especially from suicide or accidents. In areas where the local unemployment rate was comparatively high the relative mortality among the unemployed was lower. The increased mortality among the unemployed was interpreted as a consequence of health related selection as well as increased susceptibility associated with the psychosocial stress of unemployment.     

Unemployment and patterns of consultation with the general practitioner.

The relation between unemployment and consultations with the general practitioner was investigated among 13,275 economically active men aged 18-64 by using the British general household surveys. Men who were unemployed but seeking work consulted with doctors significantly more (odds ratio 1.83; 95% confidence interval 1.61 to 2.09) than those in employment, the highest consultation rate being among those who had been out of work for five years or more (odds ratio 2.12; 95% confidence interval 1.12 to 3.78). The high consultation rates persisted even after adjustment for self reported longstanding illness (odds ratio 1.53; 95% confidence interval 1.34 to 1.76). These findings suggest that in areas with high unemployment general practitioner workload is likely to be high.     

Unemployment and labor migration in rural Galicia (Spain)

This article focuses on the difficulty of entering into—and literally getting back and forth to—the waged labor market for adolescent and young adult workers from rural parts of Galicia, a region that has experienced a prolonged history of persistently high levels of unemployment. Unemployment is one of the most serious issues facing Spain, other countries of the EU, and states all over the world. In Spain, for the population of workers under 30, this problem is at staggeringly high levels that have reached 50 % plus in the last few years of the current crisis but has been longstanding. So, too, has labor migration to and from rural Galician households. This article takes a broad approach to the analysis of labor mobility, including daily commuting as well as longer distance and longer duration labor migration. It considers the role of state and EU policies over time in instituting, supporting, or discouraging different geographical trajectories and forms of movement for young adult “wage seekers” from rural Galician households.     

Unemployment and mortality among Finnish men, 1981-5.

OBJECTIVE--To ascertain whether, after controlling for several relevant background variables simultaneously, unemployment is related to mortality and to assess whether this relation is causal or whether unhealthy people are more likely to become unemployed. DESIGN--Prospective study of mortality in Finland during 1981-5 based on 1980 census data on 30-54 year old wage earner men and with particular attention to unemployment in the year before the census. SETTING--Research project at the University of Helsinki. SUBJECTS--All wage earner men in Finland aged 30-54 at the 1980 census. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Causes of death during 1981-5 and duration of unemployment in the year before the census. Background variables controlled for were age, socioeconomic state, marital state, and health. The data were analysed by log linear regression models. RESULTS--During the study period 1981-5, which covered almost 2.7 million person years, there were 9810 deaths. After controlling for all background variables relative total mortality among unemployed versus employed men was 1.93 (95% confidence interval 1.82 to 2.05). The excess mortality was highest in accidental and violent causes of death (relative mortality 2.51; 95% confidence interval 2.28 to 2.76). For circulatory diseases the relative death rate was 1.54 (95% confidence interval 1.40 to 1.70), but among neoplasms only lung cancer was associated with excess mortality. Selection for unemployment based on age, socioeconomic state, and marital state was evident but no such selection was detected based on health. Effects of unemployment on mortality were more pronounced with increasing duration of unemployment. CONCLUSIONS--The relative excess mortality of unemployed men in Finland cannot fully be explained by demographic, social, and health variables preceding unemployment. Unemployment therefore seems to have an independent causal effect on male mortality. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms between unemployment and mortality.