Employmentweb_low

EmploymEnt, Work, And hEAlth InEquAlItIEs - a global perspective
“Everyone has to work overtime. you have
no choice. Even if you're sick, you have to
work. (…) But we don't even get paid for all
of the overtime (…). For example, we might
work six or seven hours extra, but then
they just put down three or four hours on
the timecards. (…)”
source: pan, p. p. (2002, May 13). worked
till they drop; few protections for china’s
new laborers. The Washington Post.
are needed on unemployment in relation to issues such as the
mechanisms mediating between unemployment and physical
health, health behaviours and mental health. To analyse the reasons
for job loss (e.g., distinguishing between being fired, dropping for
personal reasons, family requirements or health problems) may
enhance the characterisation of mechanisms.
• More studies are needed with an ecological perspective on the
impact of levels of and changes in unemployment on the health of
the entire workforce and the whole population, although it may be
difficult to rule out methodological pitfalls. rises of unemployment
could induce or be connected to parallel rises in precarious and
informal employment as well as loss of workers’ rights and power.
• research is needed on the impact of unemployment on health
inequalities in middle- and low-income countries. The definitions
and health outcomes studied should be adapted to each context.
research on unemployment should consider a wider range of health
outcomes (e.g., infant mortality, hiV, etc.), and take a variety of
mechanisms into account, including both macro and micro policies
and interventions.
• There is a need to analyse gender differences and social
contexts in analyses of the impact of unemployment on health and
health inequalities.
• differences in the effects of unemployment related to receipt of
benefits should be taken into account in future research. Moreover,
differences in such effects according to gender, family roles and
social class should be considered in the formulation of policies
regarding unemployment compensation.
• health impact assessments of actual or potential
unemployment policies should be carried out and delivered to
policymakers.
Precarious employment
• There is an urgent need to identify general dimensions able to
capture multiple situations of precariousness in different social
contexts and for different types of jobs and workers, moving beyond
the use of partial indicators such as temporality and perceived
insecurity.
• data of higher quality with more refined health information
systems, especially in mid- and low-income countries, are also
needed. new designs, instruments, measures and comparable
definitions capable of analysing the specific mechanisms through
which precarious employment may damage worker’s health are
needed. studies on the prevalence and health consequences of new
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