Employment and Health
Employment, or having a job, means doing work and getting paid for it. Jobs should be easy to get to, safe, steady, and pay well for everyone. Studies show that people with stable jobs are usually healthier, both physically and mentally, than those who don’t have a job or have a bad one.[,] But sometimes, policies, programs, and systemic discrimination can make it hard for people to find good jobs. Different people may experience different health outcomes due to inequities in employment. This includes people across race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability status, and immigrant status. Employment access and employment
quality include four main things:
- Employment status
- Workplace risk factors
- Work organization
- work-related resources
[EC1] McKee-Ryan, F. M., Song, Z., Wanberg, C. R., & Kinicki, A. (2005). Psychological and Physical WellBeing During Unemployment: A Meta-Analytic Study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(1), pp. 53-76. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15641890/
[EC2] Goodman, N. (2015). The Impact of Employment on the Health Status and Health Care Costs of Working-age People with Disabilities. Lead Center. https://leadcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/impact_of_employment_health_status_health_care_costs_0.pdf