Unemployment+Impacts

Each 1% increase in unemployment (quarterly) is associated with: -920 suicides = 3680 per year -650 homicides = 2600 per year -4000 new admits to state mental institutions = 16,000 per year -3300 new prisoners = 13,200 per year -37000 more deaths = 148 thousand per year -A rise in both violent crimes and homelessness Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2006 Dr. M. Harvey Brenner conducted a study in 1979 on the "Influence of the Social Environment on Psychology." Brenner found that for every 10% increase in the number of unemployed there is a 1.2% in total mortality, a 1.7% increase in [|cardiovascular disease], 1.3% more [|cirrhosis] cases, 1.7% more suicides, 0.4% more arrests, and 0.8% more assaults reported to the police. A more recent study by Christopher Ruhm on the effect of recessions on health found that several measures of health actually improve during recessions. As for the impact of an economic downturn on crime, during the [|Great Depression] the crime rate did not decrease. Because unemployment insurance in the U.S. typically does not replace 50% of the income one received on the job (and one cannot receive it forever), the unemployed often end up tapping [|welfare] programs such as [|Food Stamps] or accumulating [|debt]. Higher government transfer payments in the form of welfare and food stamps decrease spending on productive economic goods, decreasing GDP. Another cost for the unemployed is that the combination of unemployment, lack of financial resources, and social responsibilities may push unemployed workers to take jobs that do not fit their skills or allow them to use their talents. Unemployment can cause [|underemployment].  Unemployment may have advantages as well as disadvantages for the overall economy. Notably, it may help avert runaway [|inflation], which negatively affects almost everyone in the affected economy and has serious long-term economic costs. However the historic assumption that full local employment must lead directly to local inflation has been attenuated, as recently expanded international trade has shown itself able to continue to supply low-priced goods even as local employment rates rise closer to full employment. The inflation-fighting benefits to the //entire economy// arising from a presumed optimum level of unemployment has been studied extensively. Before current levels of world trade were developed, unemployment was demonstrated to reduce inflation, following the [|Phillips curve], or to decelerate inflation, following the NAIRU/ [|natural rate of unemployment] theory.
 * __Unemployment Impacts __**
 * Benefits of Unemployment **