Job Loss Could also Mean Premature Death

[Breeze54]

Job Loss Could also Mean Premature Death

Saturday, December 08, 2007

http://www.medindia.net/news/Job-Loss-Could-also-Mean-Premature-Death-30391-1.htm

Loss of job need not mean just loss of income, it could also be loss of self-respect and ultimately one’s life itself under stress or poverty.

Two US economists have confirmed such conventional wisdom.

They tracked the lives of more than 20,000 workers in Pennsylvania over a 30-year period, including 7,000 employees who lost their jobs in mass layoffs. They looked at the number of deaths for these laid-off workers up until 20 years after job loss and compared their mortality to that of similar employees who did not lose their job.

"The bottom line is that large mass layoffs that lead to large earnings losses will increase mortality of the affected workers 10 to 20 per cent a year. That leads to a loss of life expectancy of one to two years," said Till von Wachter, a labour economist at Columbia University, who conducted the study with Daniel Sullivan, an economist with the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The mortality risk was calculated using a complex mathematical formula that factored in the impact of a job loss on a person's earnings, their career stability and the health status of the individual.

An examination of death statistics showed a 15 to 20 per cent increase in mortality in the 20 years after the layoff.

"If such increases were sustained beyond this period, they would imply a loss in life expectancy of about 1.5 years for a worker displaced at age 40," reads the paper.

More...

[flashl]

1. So .... bummer

that mean the demographics of individuals who are adversely impacted will be broad: manufacturing jobs that left, Regan era air-traffic controllers, employees from right-sizing and down-sizing eras, etc. should expect shorter life spans.

[Breeze54]

2. Just part of *'s & the Neocons' plans to 'downsize' Gov.!!

Add the inmpact of both wars and the lack of affordable Health Care (or ANY, for that matter!)
and the high US infant mortality rate, and I'd say we shouldn't even worry about the deficit!

They have it all planned out for us! Not to worry. :sarcasm:

[supernova]

3. I've been laid off twice in five years after 40

Should I just give up and start practicing to meet St Peter now?

:shrug:

[Breeze54]

4. I don't think so, if you're employed again and working but

if not.... take good care of yourself. :(

[supernova]

5. It does take me a long time

to find a job when this happens.

My life was more stable when I was in my mid20s. :-(

[Breeze54]

6. Mine too but the economy was much different then.

Life was hard under Reagan for me but I did have a job.
The computer industry was booming back then.

Did you see all the job cuts posted in the Labor Forum today?

That's why you're having trouble finding a job. So am I. :(

[supernova]

7. I'm thinking of starting my own business

my own writing practice.

And working with other small businesses. I might not make much money, but at least I'd know who I was gonna be working for 5 years from now.

[InkAddict]

24. Naw, you're a shoe-in

We've experienced give or take 11 RIFs, mergers, downsizings, etc...over the past 20 years now over 50 and rounding up. Guess that means we're going the other direction due to excessive wickedness. And they said lightening never struck TWICE in the same spot? Virtual lightening rod,here, and still getting plenty of kick out of life, LOL (Right in the butt). Our eyes still come out red on photos too. (ROFL) Will you miss us?

[Blue Diadem]

8. My DH and I noticed that when his first place closed

up and so many guys he'd worked with for years suddenly had no jobs. For a while(several years), it seemed every few weeks, when we looked at the obituaries there was another name of someone who had worked there.

[supernova]

9. I think people who tie their self worth to their jobs

are most susceptible. And traditional men are more likely than women to do that.

It's very sad.

I don't plan to kick the bucket one day sooner than I want to.

[Blue Diadem]

11. I think you're right about the self worth. Even my DH

had problems later..after the 2nd place he worked for closed. I think at that point he felt defeated, especially after not even being able to get an interview for almost a year.

I see my old DH reappearing now these last 6 months or so, once again having hopes and plans for the future.

You have a good spirit. Good Luck to you.

[Breeze54]

10. That's really sad , OurVotesCount-Ohio

It looks like this study is right on the money. :(

No wonder people are still working past retirement age, by choice, not just necessity.

[Blue Diadem]

12. For most of those guys, it was their life. Forced overtime for years and years,

21 days of work in a row to get a weekend off. If there was a sick or missed day, they had to begin the 21 all over again. Most of them had those jobs since they were very young men, in their teens and 20's and had in a way grown up with each other.

So sad that so many are gone now.

I've heard before that some people pass away shortly after retiring. I always wondered why then but I think after what we've seen, I can understand it a bit more.

[Breeze54]

16. I just wanted to say that women are also affected by job loss.

This article didn't state men or women but women, as heads of housholds have also lost jobs and they are trying to support families and they also had a great stake in all these massive layoffs and outsourcing and not to mention, they usually get paid a lot less to begin with ; so not to take away from the very real pain the 'men' at those jobs felt. I just wanted to add my 2 cents that women are affected the same way. :(

:hug:

[Blue Diadem]

17. I mentioned men because it's been all men who have died from where my DH worked.

I hope I didn't imply in any way that women aren't affected by job loss. I was speaking strictly about my DH's former co-workers deaths.

[Breeze54]

18. I did understand that...but it's telling

that the major holders of those jobs were men, don't you think?

But that, I'm assuming, was another time...

I was speaking from my own experience in the manufacturing industry (computers fabrication)
and there were many women working there too and they all lost their jobs for many reasons
due to less business, outsourcing, new technology, etc. I guess we both have had similar
experiences. :( I wasn't trying to be a PITA, just wanted to note that women are also in
the group affected, maybe not where you live but they were in my area too. :hug:

[Blue Diadem]

19. It's been 9 yrs since the closing of the first place.

There were women in the plant, none that we know of have died. They worked in assembly, inspection etc.

DH worked in skilled trades. I remember how hard it was back in the 70's for women to even *think* about getting into those fields. I made it once to a 2nd interview, a round table interview for a skilled trade apprentice program. One of the guys at the table chirped.."what will your husband think if you get this apprenticeship and make more than he does?" Questions in those days about who will take care of your children to are you planning on having more children etc., I'm sure it resulted in exclusion of so many women. I know it did me..my mouth actually fell open at the question about my husband..I couldn't believe I'd be asked something so stupid.

Ya know Breeze..some still ask those type of questions around here. My daughter was unemployed for almost a year. She ran across a couple of places that asked questions along those lines, marital status,(she's divorced) leading to, "what do you do about child care" and "do you stay home when your child is sick" etc. She'd come home livid. I remember that feeling.

Our area has been hit extremely hard with job loss. From manufacturing to grocery & retail stores and banks, it seems all areas have been hit. Even the small livestock farms are getting hit from the large factory farms that are populating our area.

We're all in this together. :hug:

[Breeze54]

22. Well, women aren't "allowed" to die,

until the children are grown and everybody is fed!! :rofl: Just kidding with you but you know what I mean! :P Yes, I'm sure men have had it 'put' on them that they self-identify with a job but so did I and so do women. I worked my ass off for lower pay then them (not willingly!) and still got let go after a year and in the top ten of all the techs, in spite of all the shenanigans I had to shovel through and I was not only asked about child care, like your daughter but they kept screwing with my work schedule so that I'd have to work until 9:30 PM and and sometimes until 10 PM, when they knew my daycare closed at 6 PM!! :grr: I was only one of four women in that job that had well over 125 men and the harassment would not have been braved as well by a less assertive woman. I didn't take any crap from any of them but they sure dealt it out! The older guys stuck up for me and mentored me but the guys my age and younger were real assholes and I trained THEM!! :grr: Sorry to 'go off on a tangent' but this whole thread brought back not-so-long-ago memories. I hope you understand. Tell your daughter to persevere and blow off those discriminatory questions and go get the good wages! And then laugh all the way to the bank! :D

[SoCalDem]

20. Men have traditionally been indentified with "what they do"

so when they are downsized/laid off, it's as if they are no longer "real".. they are just a guy without a job..

Women usually get asked first about their kids or their husband and THEN about their jobs.. men get asked FIRST about what thwey do and where they work

[Breeze54]

21. Good observation.

;)

[yella_dawg]

13. When Materialism and Capitalism converge.

How long before we quit buying the line of crap about "we have it so good!"?
Propaganda at work.

[Breeze54]

15. No, when survival and greed converge.

:(

[Deja Q]

14. Wow. Puts "culture of life" in a new perspective...

:(

[InkAddict]

23. Since *41, and if there is such a thing as corporate personhood,

it's been more like conspiracy to committ pre-meditated murder, felonius assault; at the very least, larceny by serial pick-pockets. Wasn't the actuarial Metropolitan Life index bad enough? Now this! Well....DUH!

I've figured we've lost about $300,000 in wages/benefits here and there over the last 20 years due to mergers, reorgs, downsizings, contract non-renewals, election result termination, site relocations, RIFs...a veritable slow agonizing death spiral of anxiety, stress, depression...very damaging just to mental health. It's also a lot of preventive checks, for instance the annual OB/GYN, the dental cleanings, not to mention that nagging body ache, tummy ache, ear ache, sore throat that went unchecked. We were lucky to have warded off the worse with oldtyme "home remedies."

Often times, I've screamed in frustration, "Just shoot me now." Other times, I'm just humming the theme from M.A.S.H (Suicide is Painless). Now, don't jump to conclusions, here. Life has been somewhere in the middle, and I absolutely know it could be far worse and that others haven't been as fortunate in staying in that "sane" zone in between. We see the violence to self and others happening around us every day, and now THEY say we're at risk of premature ill health and death -

Again, well DUH!