ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE
During the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment rates skyrocketed worldwide. Many struggled with the severe mental health consequences of unemployment. Having a deeper understanding of these consequences and the factors that affect them could allow us to provide much better therapies and programs to alleviate mental health issues in the unemployed. In this paper, the respondent’s level of education, income, and the length of unemployment and their effect on mental health were analyzed. This is done using two Chi-Square tests and a Kruskal-Wallis test, respectively. The results show that the length of unemployment does have a significant impact on the number of symptoms of a mental illness experienced with this test returning a p-value of 7.91(10^-7). The income bracket and level of anxiety test returned a p-value of 0.055, while the income bracket and level of depression test returned a p-value of 0.3, indicating that income bracket makes no significant difference on the rates of either illness. The education and level of anxiety test returned a p-value of 0.12, and the education and level of depression test returned a p-value of 0.14, indicating that education level makes no significant difference on the rates of either illness. The only variable that made a significant impact on the mental health of the unemployed was the length of the unemployment, as indicated by the low p-value.
Keywords: Unemployment, Job loss, Mental Illness, Anxiety, Depression.
