There's a famous statistic from 2008 in the US that said something along the lines of, for every 1% of unemployment there were 40,000 suicides. That makes unemployment almost as deadly as coronavirus. I don't believe that statistic has changed.
I guess then it’s a good thing that USA is seeing some of the lowest unemployment rates in decades. Unemployment hasn’t been this low since 1969[1].
Even the tech sector where we’re seeing layoffs is doing pretty well. Tech unemployment rate is estimated at 1.8% for January 2023 [2]
[1] https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate
[2] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2023/02/07/tech...
https://www.edhovee.com/edhblog/2020/5/6/more-deaths-from-un...
The actual paragraph of interest from the 2005 book is this: “According to one study [the one by Bluestone et al.], a 1 percent increase in the unemployment rate will be associated with 37,000 deaths (including 20,000 heart attacks), 920 suicides, 650 homicides, 4,000 state mental hospital admissions and 3,300 state prison admissions.”
Actually the author of that post thinks the number is higher at 47,500 based on data:
And the impact likely is now greater than estimated by Bluestone, Harrison, and Baker nearly 40 years ago. With this updated analysis, a more current estimate appears to be more in the range of 47,500 deaths for every 1% point increase in America’s average annual unemployment rate.
That is: perhaps unemployment isn’t the cause, but financial peril is. And maybe half-decent social systems that mitigate financial peril in the face of unemployment could have an effect.
If you identify too much with your job, losing it is an attack on your ego and it damages your sense of who you are. It's like you died; the role you played in a whole network of social relations is gone. Your status and importance, if you mentally invested yourself in it, is diminished, possibly to irrelevance. You're a nobody.
I think this kind of mindset can push someone over the edge.