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Job insecurity causes leap in suicide risk
04/03/2009
Working conditions and terms of employment are big factors in social inequalities in health. Job insecurity, for example, affects people in a range of destructive ways. It often subjects them to the most health-endangering working conditions, and stops them being able to plan for the medium- or long-term future. Now, French research has found a very close link between job insecurity and suicide.
The survey was done among 2012 people as a representative sample of the French adult population plus 312 individuals seeking help with problems from the Secours Populaire humanitarian aid charity. One in five adults in the general population was in an apparently distressed state. That proportion rose to 69% for those in precarious situations seeking help. Insecurity leads to psychological problems in an overwhelming number of these cases. The mental distress score is very closely correlated with the risk of suicide.
Among those with a mental distress score equal to or higher than 6: - one in two had already thought (even in passing) about killing themselves; - one in three had seriously contemplated it; - 15% had been hospitalized after attempting suicide.
A correlation was found between a sharply increased suicide risk and interviewees’ terms of employment. The lowest risks were found among those in stable employment (permanent contract), rising for those on short-term contracts, and highest of all among benefit claimants.
The survey team warn that, “After the financial and economic crisis, we may find ourselves with a real health crisis on our hands. All the signs are that the surge in unemployment in our country, the financial difficulties that many French people will find themselves in, and uncertainties about the future will give rise to big personal and psychological problems with a new spate of cases of mental distress, depression and the temptation to end it all.”
