Older Workers Who Lose Their Jobs Suffer Mental and Physical Health Problems, Yale Study Shows; Research Points to Hidden Costs in Widespread Layoffs

Older workers who lose their jobs suffer more health problems than those who remain employed, a Yale study shows.

“Some believe that job loss at older ages may be less devastating because workers are nearing retirement; in contrast, our study suggests that job loss at older ages can have significant, negative health consequences,” said Elizabeth Bradley, assistant professor at Yale University’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.

The study in the May issue of The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences is the first to examine the health consequences of job displacement using a nationally representative sample of older workers in the United States.

Previous studies of the health effects associated with unemployment have focused on younger workers and individual plant closings rather than a broad cross-section of older workers.

The Yale study included 209 displaced workers and a comparison group of 2,907 continuously employed workers, aged 51 and older.

Bradley said both increased physical disability and poorer mental health were found among older workers who experience involuntary job loss. The negative health consequences were more pronounced among unmarried workers.

One factor, based on other research, may be that American workers accumulate a significant proportion of the wealth that will finance their retirements in the decade preceding retirement.

“Involuntary job loss in this period may therefore have a particularly devastating impact on economic well-being and consequently on emotional and physical health,” the Yale researchers said.

Bradley said, “The study is important because it highlights the broad effects of downsizing, which include not only economic losses but also reductions in the physical and mental health of displaced individuals.”

Other investigators on the study were William Gallo, principal investigator, and Michele Siegel, both post doctoral fellows in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, and Professor Stanislav Kasl, also in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.