We don't know which came first - depression leading to unemployment or unemployment leading to depression.
hard to be depressed when too tired for introspection. There's enough of that when in permanent vacation.
Suicide rates are rising in the US, actually, unlike the rest of the world. I recall reading a couple interesting studies. One showed that suicide rates fall as the personal incomes rise, so apparently money does buy some happiness. The other one, sadly, demonstrate that suicide rates were falling in younger people and increasing in the older folks.
Well it looks like people are killing themselves over what their respective gender roles are expecting them to play. Traditionally men's gender role expects them to be the breadwinner so men get depressed when they feel they are failing to bring home the bacon. Women don't kill themselves when they can't find work but they kill themselves when they can't find love because traditional gender roles place more importance on women to be more successful in relationships, Madame Butterfly, Miss Saigon comes to mind. On a subconscious level, I think it has to do again with our survival. We kill ourselves because we feel there is no hope for survival. Men used to be hunters to bring home the food and when they don't, the whole tribe perish and men still associate working with hunting today, with phrases like "making a killing in the market" so when men lose jobs they feel a despair that they can't survive anymore and their family can't survive anymore even though the family is less and less dependant on men to survive nowadays but something is slow to change. The article says "suicide is seen for the society as a collective failure" well then maybe the society can help by not ridiculing men so much when they take on a more domestic role, give more credit to stay-at-home dads who choose to remain more in their children's lives. Women on the other hand has always been in a domestic role where their sole source of income is from their life-partner, so success of women is measured by her emotional life, her relationships, her children and when women feel they failed in their relationships, they feel they can't survive anymore securing a source of income, so they choose to perish, subconsciously. Is it a coincidence that the higher incidence of suicide rates of women are found in China and India, the two of the most traditionally paternalistic cultures in the world? But fear not, everything is changing. Robots are coming. When the robots are finally here, everybody would be out of work so who cares if the men are jobless. Nobody would be working even including the macho Mr. Jones next door. Since nobody is working, there would be no more pressure for men to be breadwinner as everybody would be able to survive regardless.
Better studies (old and recent) involving the relationship of suicide rates in connection to job stress. Higher the income with stress...higher the suicide rates. If you only look at age & income levels...low income between 20 - 35 years of age have the highest suicide rates. In contrast, if you look at profession with academic study...Doctors are killing themself more than any other profession. I think one doctor per day is killing themself in North America alone. Other professions with very high suicide rates are: Dentists Financial Workers Lawyers Police Officers Real Estate Agents Electricians Farm/Agriculture Workers Phamacists Lab Scientists In college, I knew a few that killed themself...a dental student, pharmaceutical student and a law student. All three had no prior mental illness warnings and were top students in their class...all three did such on campus or in campus housing for grad students with families. Sad to say because that would imply the stress (too much pressure) is a contributing factor early in the academics (grad school)...just before the professional career. P.S. I read somewhere in a medical journal a few years ago that suicide rate among "new mothers" was rising faster than any other group...linked to postpartum depression that develops within a few months after childbirth. Highest in western civilization. wrbtrader
I think a lot of these are "wet works" made to look like suicides. LOL Dentists? Really? Maybe the dentist who killed that lion in Zimbabwe should've killed himself. But other than that, pharmacists? What kind of stress do they have in filling some prescriptions with guaranteed income cuz everybody gets sick and everybody needs pills. Real estate agents? What do they need to kill themselves for? Housing prices going up too fast?
I knew a dental student in college in the U.S., dentist in France and dentist here in Québec. They all say its true. As for the pharmacist...perfection on the medication requirement maybe ? Most likely similar like pressure as a Doctors. For example, I was once given the wrong medication and the pharmacist over-reacted and acted as if it was the end of the world. He just mis-read the doctors prescription. They do have some of the highest litigation cases against them...up there with Dentists and Doctors. Three different groups judging you and impacting your career: patients, legal court and the board of your profession. wrbtrader