Does unemployment make you less healthy?

Sammanfattning: Employment is often more than just a way to make a living and a job loss might be one of life’s most stressful experiences. Aside from the financial hardship it causes, it may also affect individuals’ behaviors. This study examines the impact of unemployment on different health behaviors, namely alcohol and cigarette consumption, total physical activity and dietary patterns. This is done by using individual-level panel data from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences, LISS. The time period stretches from 2008 to 2018 and unlike other research carried out in this area, we are including data from more recent years. In order to estimate the effects of unemployment on different health behaviors, the paper uses fixed effects methods. The results reflect that following a job loss, both women and men experience a decline in minutes of strenuous physical activity per week. Additionally, experiencing a job loss results in a decrease in smoking among male smokers. A change in employment status does by contrast not seem to have a significant impact on neither alcohol consumption nor dietary patterns. Thus, the results suggest that it might not be the change in employment status per se that can be considered as the main health risk factor.