UNEMPLOYMENT, THE UNEMPLOYED, AND HEALTH An analysis of the Dutch situation

Abstract

In this paper the main attention will be given to the subjective ex­ perience of being unemployed. This experience is influenced by a number of social factors and is also related to (health) effects of unemployment, which can b~ devided into physical and psychosocial effects. The Hypo­ thesis can be drawn from the published research results, and on this basis we shall explore various possibilities for the formulation of problems that might be investigated. Subjective experience of unemployment Few studies have dealt with the health of today's unemployed, especially if we wish to exclude the categories of those drawing disability bene­ fits ar opting for early retirement. Data on the effects of unemployment, not only in the Netherlands but also other countries, have been provided by highly divergent investigations. Many of those done in the Netherlands were performed to provide a basis for policy-making of the re-incorpora­ tion of the unemployed into the labour process or were concerned with the management of social provisions. Findings on the subjective experience of unemployment in these studies are usually obtained coincidentally, or from secondary sources or secondary analyses. A few studies have been primarily concerned with the experience of unemployment and its conse­ quences aso experienced by the individual. The heterogeneity of the stu­ dies impedes comparison of the results. This report does not represent more than an inventory of the accumulated information, and analysis in­ dicates little more than occasional cases of some degree of agreement. It is, however, striking that in almost all of the studies problems arose in connection with the reaction to unemployment. This probably in­ dicates the severity and penetration of the problems encountered by some of the unemployed.