Abstract
Unemployment impairs individuals’ well-being and health and there is some empirical evidence showing that macroeconomic conditions can moderate these effects. This paper goes a step further and investigates differences in how macroeconomic indicators of European countries’ economic situation relate to individual subjective health and well-being, and also moderate the relationship between individual labour market exclusion and these outcomes across age groups: young individuals (aged 15–29), prime working age adults (aged 30–49, base category) and pre-retirement age adults (aged 50–64). We used two different macroeconomic indicators to define macroeconomic situation: country-level unemployment rate and gross domestic product (GDP). Both indicators were disaggregated into long-term economic trend and business cycle shocks using Hodrick–Prescott filtering to allow distinguishing between expected and unexpected change in macroeconomic circumstances. We used the European Social Survey individual-level data from 35 European countries for 2002–2014. Multi-level analysis with three levels were run for men and women separately. Results revealed differences in how individual-level unemployment related to well-being depending on the age group, with pre-retirement age group adults’ health and well-being suffering the most. Also, macroeconomic indicators were found to moderate the relationship between individual-level unemployment and subjective health and well-being with some noticeable differences between age groups, and with GDP trend having the most sizeable influence.
Highlights
Empirical evidence shows that unemployment impairs individuals’ well-being and health (Cheng & Chan 2008; De Witte, 2005; Guardiola & Guillen-Royo, 2015; McKee-Ryan et al, 2005; Sverke et al, 2002; Voßemer & Eunicke, 2015) and that the strength of these individual-level effects may vary across poorer and richer countries (Eichhorn, 2013; Nizalova et al, 2021; Wulfgramm, 2014)
In relation to labour market (LM) statuses: 5.3% of males and 4.3% of females were unemployed, 13.8% of males and 15.7% of females were in insecure employment positions, 2% of males and 1.9% of females were being discouraged from work, 8.1% of males and 8% of females were in education, 7.4% of males and 7.9% of females were in retirement, 1.3% of males and 16.1% of females doing housework, and 4.1% of males and 3.8% of females had a labour status identified as ‘other’
In comparison to the employed, individual-level unemployment for men was related to larger increases inwell-being measures than it was for women, while the pattern was reversed in the case of subjective health
Summary
Empirical evidence shows that unemployment impairs individuals’ well-being and health (Cheng & Chan 2008; De Witte, 2005; Guardiola & Guillen-Royo, 2015; McKee-Ryan et al, 2005; Sverke et al, 2002; Voßemer & Eunicke, 2015) and that the strength of these individual-level effects may vary across poorer and richer countries (Eichhorn, 2013; Nizalova et al, 2021; Wulfgramm, 2014). Looking at age differences is relevant because empirical evidence suggests that (the possibility of) losing one’s job frustrates employees’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness across all age groups, but most strongly among older workers (Stynen et al, 2015). This implies that unfavourable labour market conditions are more likely to be perceived by older employees as hindrances, affecting their health and wellbeing more strongly than that of their younger counterparts. It is possible that younger and older men have more freedom and fewer responsibilities, while family demands and obligations make the unemployment experience for middleaged men more difficult to handle
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