2. Unemployment is associated with a large number of health risks.

Ever since Emile Durkheim observed in 1897 that increases in unemployment are associated with rising suicide rates,⁴ an important line of social research has focused on the health impacts of unemployment. Across a broad range of research methodologies, from case studies to econometric modeling, this research consistently shows that unemployment has a strong, deleterious association with health. In a meta-analysis of this research, Jin and colleagues⁵ reviewed 46 epidemiological studies reporting the association between unemployment and many adverse health outcomes including low self-esteem, high rates of depression, excess suicides, increased alcohol consumption and some measures of poor physical health such as depressed immunological functioning. Moreover, a number of studies indicate that unemployed people have higher mortality rates than employed individuals,^{6, 7, 8} and in studies based on self-reports, laid-off workers report more stress, ill-health and disability than their employed counterparts.^{9, 10, 11} Even people who are still employed but threatened with job loss suffer adverse health consequences such as increased weight, heart disease,¹² and high cholesterol levels.^{13, 14} One study links unemployment to increased rates of violence.¹⁵ This convergence of evidence across a variety of research methods and measures lends confidence to the assertion that unemployment is associated with poor heath.