As I have said before, unemployment is more than just a matter of losing income, it does incur psychological costs. People do not just feel anxious about the loss of income, they feel sad, ashamed, lost, etc. for not serving a purpose, losing self-respect, social connections, etc. If the society and the government forget that work means more than just income and human is an emotional species, we would not be able to tackle the problem. Unemployment incurs both monetary and psychological costs.
But is unemployment really such a destructive problem that deserve the attention of the society? Yes, indeed.
(source: nippon.com)
In Japan, the most dramatic increase in suicide rate in modern history occurred in 1998 (34%), which was also at one of the few dramatic increases in unemployment rate (~1%). The suicide rate peaked in 2003, which was also one of the two peaks in unemployment rate in modern history. It remained roughly on that level and did not come down significantly until around 2011.
Social norms in Japan, as we know, are strong. People are strongly expected to conform to the society. When it comes to work, people are expected to dress in one specific way (e.g. if you take the train in the morning, you will see that most men are in suits that are black/dark blue and white). They have to speak in a specific type of language (keigo) when they talk to their superiors and customers. Combined with the study I previously pointed out, which suggested that social norm has a significant impact on how unemployment rate affect happiness (Stutzer and Lalive, 2004), we can reasonably conclude that the increase in unemployment rate was at least partly responsible for this dramatic increase in suicide rate.
The suicide rate is generally much higher in men than in women (usually more than double) and in 2003 the marginal increase in male suicide rate (40%) was much higher than female suicide rate (23%). And men tend to be the ones who work for the family and the ones who bear more of the social norm to work. This gender difference in suicide rate is at least partly due to the direct effect of social norm.
In addition, for a few decades, Japanese people would work for the same companies for many years. As companies had to lay off workers due to the economic downturn in the 90's (which was a significant event after decades of post-war economic miracle), loyal workers who were there for years or even decades could not escape from that. This would definitely cause serious resentment, the feeling of being abandoned, etc. This adds more to the psychological costs that is not commonly observed in other countries.
Some may wonder whether the correlation between unemployment and suicide are actually causation. Perhaps there is a third factor that causes both. For example, those who are more likely to suffer from mental illnesses and those who already suffer from them are more likely to become unemployed. An employer may think: "If I have to fire someone, of course I am going to fire this guy. He can't please our customers. He is just not cheerful." Or that worker just does not have a good relationship with their boss. And these people are also more likely to suicide. So if, for whatever reason, the number of mentally ill people increases, of course unemployment rate and suicide rate would increase.
While the above can be true, a study suggested that mental illness being an underlying third factor only accounts for about half of the strong association between unemployment and suicide (Blakely, Collings and Atkinson, 2003). And it is clear that unemployment does cause mental health to go down (Montgomery et al, 1999), and those who are on the extreme end up committing suicide .
All these tell us that: 1) increase in unemployment does cause suicide rate to increase (through the negative impact on mental health), and 2) it also causes the mental health of those who already had mental illnesses to further deteriorate, and eventually lead to suicide. To mitigate the increase in suicide rate by another unemployment wave in the future, Japan and other countries should deal with the issue with the same attitude as they would deal with a disease, and pay attention to the mental health of citizens during regular times.
It is free to subscribe to this blog. Support me by following me on Facebook or Twitter. Cancel any time you want.
Reference:
- Stutzer, A., Lalive, R. (2004). The Role of Social Work Norms in Job Searching and Subjective Well-Being. Journal of the European Economic Association. 2(4), 696–719.
- Blakely, T. A., Collings, S. C. D., Atkinson, J. (2003). Unemployment and suicide. Evidence for a causal association?. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 57, 594 - 600. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.57.8.594
- Montgomery, S. M., Cook, D. G., Bartley, M.J., Wadsworth M. E. (1999). Unemployment pre-dates symptoms of depression and anxiety resulting in medical consultation in young men. International Journal of Epidemiology, 28(1), 95-100. Retrived from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10195671
No comments:
Post a Comment