Apples for Health- Employment equals fewer early deaths

Employment equals fewer early deaths

SHEFFIELD, England, March 16 (UPI) -- The direct effect of reducing unemployment has been estimated to prevent up to 2,500 premature deaths a year in Britain, researchers said.

Danny Dorling of the University of Sheffield in England, said that British studies show that deaths doubled among men age 40-59 in the five years after layoffs in 1980 and research during the early 1990s found that unemployment increased rates of depression, particularly in the young who are usually most badly hit when jobs are few.

Reducing unemployment is beneficial, but health benefits vary according to the method used, Dorling said.

For example, youth opportunity-type schemes are almost as detrimental to psychological health as is unemployment itself. Temporary employment is slightly better but not as good as a properly rewarded and organized apprenticeship, the researchers found.

Secure work is better than all these options, but the best option for men and women age 16-24 in the 1980s and 1990s was going to college -- associated with lower suicide risks.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that outside of the benefits to the college students, a college education also impacts unemployment rates.

The most highly valued education is university education, Dorling said. If three extra young adults per 100 go to college this summer and are out of the job market, another three people could fill those jobs that the first three might have taken and fewer young people compete with older workers who have recently laid off, Dorling suggested.