The loneliness epidemic that experts have been warning us about for years has been magnified by the COVID pandemic. Almost 40% of Americans say they feel “serious loneliness” and while feeling lonely isn’t classified as a disease, loneliness negatively impacts health and can exacerbate mental health issues. Not only that, but a new study suggests that people who are experiencing loneliness are at a greater risk of unemployment.
The study, which was published yesterday in the journal BMC Public Health, analyzed data from 15,000 people in the U.K. for three years spanning 2017-2020. What researchers found was that people who were defined as lonely near the beginning of the study were 17.5% more likely to become unemployed by the end of the study. It’s important to note that most of the research for the study was conducted before the pandemic, so we don’t know exactly how these numbers might look now.
