Happiness Set Point Permanently Lowered by Unemployment

A job loss can be more psychologically debilitating over the long term than losing a spouse or becoming disabled, a researcher has found.

Andrew Oswald, an economist at the University of Warwick, came to the conclusion after collecting happiness data from hundreds of thousands of people both here and in the United Kingdom, New York Magazine reports.

The data shows that people have a happiness set point, and sustained unemployment is one of the few life-changing events that permanently lowers the set point, the story says. People recover more quickly from losing a spouse or becoming disabled.

Oswald also notes permanent economic effects. “It's what economists call 'scarring,' ” he told New York Magazine. “If I lose my job today, the evidence is that my wages will be 10 percent lower, even a decade from now. Your bad luck follows you.”

Legal Blog Watch and the blog Law and More noted the report.

“This all is no newsflash,” Jane Genova writes at Law and more. “Losing a professional identity, at least in America, entails so many aspects of our daily routine, networks, sources of satisfaction and status, and confidence.”