Losing Job, Living Longer

据研究人员发现，高失业率降低了整个人群中死亡的风险，这与我们通常认为的更多的就业岗位失去更多的死亡是相反的。这一结论起初我很惊讶，但后来发现它是合理的。所以我决定在这个话题上发表演讲，希望在座的各位都能在某种程度上改变自己的看法。

Hello every one, it’s an honor to be here to deliver a speech. Today, my topic is Losing job, Living longer. I guess now every one feels confused about it. Let me ask you a question, whether do you think unemployment increases the death rates? I suppose most of your answers are yes. If losing a job, financial pressure and social pressure on shoulder may weigh down a person and cause many problems and death to a great extent. But today I’m going to tell you a different answer - when unemployment rates increase, the people who die decline in aggregate and longitudinally. 

Last year Scientific American and American Journal of Epidemiology reported this article and confirmed the conclusion by doing a research. Researchers from Drexel University and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor collected statistics from PSID (Panel Study of Income Dynamics) from 1979 to 1997 and then analyzed the data to explain the contradictory phenomenon. According to the research, we can sum up three kinds of reasons why when unemployment rates increase while mortality rates decline. 

First of all, for those who lost their jobs, there is a saying, misfortune might be a blessing in disguise. So in some ways it can lead to good results on the contrary. For example, the unemployed may change their way of living to a better side. People are more likely to get rid of bad habits when losing jobs. No smoking  nor drinking but more healthy food and physical exercises. Developing healthy living habits is a good way to keep people living longer. Besides, there is more time to be with families to enjoy the real leisure time. It can decrease the number of people who suffer from psychological illness like depressive disorder thus avoiding the rates of suicide. After a period of relax and adjustment, people are more confident and capable to meet later job hunting or new working environment.

After discussing the positive effects to the individuals, I am going to analyze the effect of losing jobs to the the mortality rates and the relationship between the whole economic condition. In the economic recession, job losing occur frequently. But during this time, according to Christopher•Groom , an economics professor from University of North Carolia. His essay Whether Recession is Good for Your Health has compared death rates between 1972 and 1991 with ups and downs of the economy. The conclusion was that as long as the unemployment rates rose by one percent, the mortality rates dropped zero point five percent.When in economic recession, industrial activities and transportation dropped thus improving the atmospheric condition. With fresh air and beautiful environment, people even those unemployed have much more pleasant mood which growth their longevity. And the probability of getting infected with illness caused by air pollution largely declined. What’s more, professor Christopher•Groom also found that as long as the unemployment rates rose by one percent, the death rates caused by traffic accident dropped 2.4%. On the one hand, the more people lost their jobs. The less they drive cars and it naturally decreased the number of death rates because of traffic accident. On the other hand, for those who are unemployed, even if they drive a car, there is no need to drive like a rocket just in case not late to work. Fast driving is such a dangerous behavior and very likely to cause accidents. With fewer cars on the road and slower speed, death rates because of traffic accidents naturally descended. 

The aforementioned is the relationship between unemployment and economic conditions as well as how unemployment reduce the mortality rates of the whole society. Even though job losing cause suicide and cancer too but it’s not a big deal compared with the decreased death numbers. In the end, I am going to illustrate my point of view from the opposite side. That is the employed death rates are higher than those unemployed. For the people who work, there are two factors promoting their death, physically and mentally.

Generally, most of people have a nine-to-five job. Busy work and heavy workload deprive their regular meals and sleep. They don’t have time taking care of their health. Even going home to have a meal on time or doing a regular exercises is a waste of time for them. Especially for the young people, working overtime is such a common thing. The great pressure and bad lifestyle can lead to diseases easily. Cardiovascular diseases and heart disease are the most frequent symptom for the overworked people. The news about young workers got sudden deaths commonly occured. From this perspective, the mortality rates are much higher when people at work. And from the mental aspect, we can draw a same conclusion. Nearly no job hasn’t pressure at all. As long as you at a position, a flow of pressure shouldered on you. No matter it’s from the workload or from your boss. They just grasp you and never go. Insomnia and other psychological illness like depressive disorder may come to you one after another. And if there is not a proper way to release the pressure, the possibility to do some extreme things is very high. For example, do harm to others like domestic violence and child abuse. Even worse some crucial crimes especially carrying out suicides. Every year, the number of suicides takes up a large amount of the whole mortality death. In conclusion, the hard work can cause damages to people’s body health and mental state. The worst result is increasing the mortality rates. 

All in all, according to researchers we find that higher unemployment rates reduce the risk of death among the entire population which is contrary to our usual view of more job losing more deaths. I was quite surprised by this conclusion at first but found it reasonable later. So I decided to deliver a speech around this topic and hope everyone present know more about it and change your opinions to some extent. At last, thanks for listening and wish you a good day! Thank you!

Web EBSCO, May 1, 2015



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