How Joblessness Hurts Us All

Misery, it turns out, doesn't love company. Distressing new researchshows that unemployment fosters social isolation not just for theunemployed but also for their still-employed neighbors. Moreover, thenegative consequences last much longer than the unemployment itself.Policymakers have focused on short-term help for the jobless, but theymust address these longer-term community effects, too.

Impact studied

Recent studies confirm the results of research during the GreatDepression— unemployment badly frays a person's ties with hiscommunity, sometimes permanently. After careful analysis of 20 years ofmonthly surveys tracking Americans' social and political habits, ourcolleague Chaeyoon Lim of the University of Wisconsin has found thatunemployed Americans are significantly less involved in theircommunities than their employed demographic twins. The jobless are lesslikely to vote, petition, march, write letters to editors, or evenvolunteer. They attend fewer meetings and serve less frequently asleaders in local organizations. Moreover, sociologist Cristobal Young'sresearch finds that the unemployed spend most of their increased freetime alone.

These negative social consequences outlast the unemployment itself.Tracking Wisconsin 1957 high school graduates, sociologists JennieBrand and Sarah Burgard found that in contrast to comparable classmateswho were never unemployed, graduates who lost jobs, even briefly andearly in their careers, joined community groups less and volunteered considerably less over their entire lives.And economist Andrew Clark, psychologist Richard Lucas and others foundthat, unlike almost any other traumatic life event, joblessness resultsin permanently lower levels of life satisfaction, even if the jobless later find jobs.

Equally disturbing, high unemployment rates reduce the social andcivic involvement even of those still employed. Lim has found thatAmericans with jobs who live in states with high unemployment are lesscivically engaged than workers elsewhere. In fact, most of the civicdecay in hard-hit communities is likely due not to the jobless droppingout, but to their still-employed neighbors dropping out.

Moreover, beyond civic disengagement, places with higher joblessnesshave more pervasive violence and crimes against property. They havemore fragile families with harsher parenting, and higher rates ofmental disorder and psychological distress among both the unemployedand the employed. These social consequences are a powerful aftershockto communities already reeling economically.

What might explain the civic withdrawal during recessions? Thejobless shun socializing, shamed that their work was deemed expendable.Economic depression breeds psychological depression. The unemployed mayfeel that their employer has broken an implicit social contract,deflating any impulse to help others. Where unemployment is high, thosestill hanging onto their jobs might work harder for fear of furtherlayoffs, thus crowding out time for civic engagement. Above all, inafflicted communities, the contagion of psychic depression and socialisolation spreads more rapidly than joblessness itself.

What to do?

The lasting social consequences of unemployment demand remedy. President Obama has extended individual unemployment benefits.Thesenew findings call for special aid to communities with high andpersistent unemployment. Government and business should ensure thatunemployment is a last cost-cutting move, not the first.

Millions of employed Americans are silently thankful that the swordof Damocles has not yet fallen on them. Meanwhile, they and theirleaders overlook the fact that unemployment is causing long-run socialdisintegration in their communities. Albert Camus was right: “Without work, all life goes rotten.”