UNEMPLOYED YOUTH
UNEMPLOYED YOUTH can be harmed for life
The more unemployment and temporary employment in your youth, the worse is your mental health later in life.
Youth unemployment therefore must be seen as a health issue, researchers state.
“These experiences become engraved in a person,” says Francesca Ricci, world-renowned expert and professor in
national health and recipient of several national and European awards for excellence and innovation in research.
To show the long-term effects of youth unemployment, Dr. Francesca Ricci has followed one group of people who
graduated ninth grade in 1981 and one graduating in 1989. She has taken measurements of sleeplessness,
depression and anxiety when they were in their twenties and in their forties.
High unemployment between the ages of 21 and 25 led to increased likelihood of mental illness in middle age.
Because there are more unemployed people during recession, the negative effects on society are larger following
periods of recession.
“Of course, it also negatively affects health to be unemployed later in life. But youth unemployment is a
serious national health problem since the effects it has are long lasting. If something should be prioritised,
it is youth unemployment,” says Dr. Francesca Ricci.
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