Psychological Effects of Long-Term Unemployment

Unemployment is obviously bad but long-term unemployment is worse. It’s not just a little worse, it’s horrifically worse. It’s way higher than it’s ever been before. When the headline unemployment rate peaked in 2010, it was actually a bit lower than the peak during the 1980 recession and only a point higher than the 1973 recession. As bad as it was, it was something we’d faced before. But the long-term unemployment rate is a whole different story. It peaked at a rate nearly double the worst we’d ever seen in the past, and it’s been coming down only slowly ever since.

Take a look at the following three Psychological Effects of Long-Term Unemployment For a broader Understanding:

1. Depression: Long-term unemployed are more than 3x likely to be depressed than full-time unemployed

While only 5.6% of Americans employed full-time say they currently have or are being treated for depression, this rate more than doubles for unemployed Americans, jumping to 12.4%. However, the depression rate among the long-term unemployed — individuals seeking work for 27 weeks or more — shoots up to 18.0%.

2. Isolation: Long-term unemployed are more likely to isolate themselves from friends and family than short-term unemployed

When respondents were asked to tally how long they had socialized with friends and family — including email and online communication — 31.1% of the long-term unemployed reported spending only two hours or less with family or friends the previous day, compared to 21.5% among short-term unemployed adults.

3. Pessimism: The longer South Africans remain unemployed, the less likely they are to believe they will find a job within the next 4 weeks

Among those who had been jobless for only three-to-five weeks, 30.6% did not believe they would find a job within the next month; however, among those who had been jobless for 52 weeks or more, this pessimistic outlook was shared by a whopping 71.3% of respondents.