Those who have experienced loneliness are more likely to be unemployed in the future, according to a new study.

Although previous research has shown that being unemployed can lead to loneliness, this new study from the University of Exeter is the first to investigate if the contrary is also true among working-age people.

The study, which was published in BMC Public Health, discovered that people who reported “feeling lonely often” were much more likely to be laid off subsequently. Their research also validated prior findings that those who were unemployed at the time were more likely to be lonely subsequently.

“Given the persisting and potentially scarring effects of both loneliness and unemployment on health and the economy, prevention of both experiences is key,” explains Nia Morrish, lead author.

“Decreased loneliness,” according to the lead author, “could mitigate unemployment, and employment abate loneliness, which may in turn relate positively to other factors including health and quality of life.

The lead author further adds, “Thus, particular attention should be paid to loneliness with additional support from employers and government to improve health and wellbeing. Our research was largely conducted pre-pandemic, however, we suspect this issue may be even more pressing, with more people working from home and potentially experiencing isolation because of anxieties around covid.”

The study looked at data from over 15,000 people in the Understanding Society Household Longitudinal Study, which was mostly pre-pandemic. The researchers looked at replies from individuals from 2017 to 2019 and then from 2018 to 2020, controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, education, marital status, household composition, number of own children, and area.

“Loneliness is an incredibly important societal problem,” adds Senior author Professor Antonieta Medina-Lara, “which is often thought about in terms of the impact on mental health and wellbeing only.  Our findings indicate that there may also be wider implications, which could have negative impacts for individuals and the economy.”

According to the author, “We need to explore this further, and it could lay the foundations for employers or policy makers to tackle loneliness with a view to keeping more people in work.”

While prior studies have demonstrated that unemployment can lead to loneliness, this is the first study to indicate that lonely persons of any age are more likely to become unemployed.

Paper co-author Dr Ruben Mujica-Mota says “Our findings show that these two issues can interact and create a self-fulfilling, negative cycle. There is a need for greater recognition of the wider societal impacts of loneliness in the working age population.”

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