Unemployment Might Make You Age Faster

Almost seven years after the financial crisis threw the world into disarray, optimists are beginning to whisper of green shoots. But if the economy is returning to full health, the same might not be true for the people who have borne the full brunt of the crisis. A new study of over 5,000 Finnish men and women has linked long-term unemployment with accelerated ageing in their DNA.

The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust and published in PLOS ONE, found that men who had been unemployed for more than two years between 1994 and 1997 showed signs of cellular-level damage. Specifically, the study found that the men were twice as likely to have shortened telomeres than men who were not long-term unemployed.

Analogous to the plastic tips on shoelaces, telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes. Each time your chromosomes replicate, the telomeres shorten—making it more likely your chromosomes will fray, to continue the analogy. It is believed that this process is linked to ageing, and studies have shown that shortened telomeres indicate a heightened risk of age-related illnesses like heart disease and type-II diabetes.

“Shorter telomeres seem to predict both shortened lifespans and an increased risk of age-related conditions,” Jessica Buxton, a co-author of the study from Imperial College London, told me over the phone.

A large body of research has linked unemployment with a variety of health problems, most notably mental health issues (a situation that isn’t helped by the fact that people with mental health issues are more likely to lose their jobs in a recession). In 2009, the British Medical Journal noted that the detrimental effects of unemployment on health were so severe that in the UK the “direct effect of reducing unemployment has been estimated to prevent up to 2500 premature deaths a year.”

This latest study, a joint endeavour between Imperial College London and the University of Oulu, Finland, is the first time the health impact of unemployment has been studied at a cellular level. Similar to the “Child of Our Time” project in the UK, which followed the lives of 25 children from birth into adulthood, it used a dataset of 5,620 Finnish people tracked since their birth in 1966. When the group reached 31 in 1997, blood samples were taken. The researchers were able to use these samples to measure telomere lengths in the group’s white blood cells.

As Finnish unemployment records are highly detailed, the researchers were also able to examine the years leading up to 1997 and find out exactly how long people had been unemployed. They also excluded from the study people who were ill, physically or mentally, and also controlled for factors like alcohol and cigarette consumption and levels of physical activity.

Men who were unemployed for more than two years were significantly more likely to have shorter telomeres, they found. “Our speculation is that this is a stress-related effect of unemployment,” said Buxton. “Either the long-term lack of meaningful activity, but also in Finland specifically after two years the unemployment benefit level drops. Perhaps the financial stress kicks in at that point.”

The result was not replicated for women in the study. At the time the blood samples were taken, the group had fewer women unemployed for over two years than men. This could mean that there weren’t enough data points for the effect to become apparent. However, a 2011 review of unemployment and mortality in the United States also found a larger effect for men than women. At the moment, it isn’t possible to judge one way or the other conclusively.

Buxton is keen to stress that the findings are specific to Finland and warns against drawing direct comparisons with other countries. But the broader question the research now poses is whether unemployment itself accelerates ageing, or if the findings indicate specific stress caused by cuts to welfare payments.

Either way, it seems “boom and bust” takes a hefty toll on the human body, and it’s possible that many will be coming out of this latest recession far older than their years.