Rising US joblessness and social discord threaten GDP

Significance

Rates of disability fell from 2010 to early 2020 and rates of drug overdoses began to stabilise as the persistently unemployed were drawn back into employment, particularly younger men with less education. However, the COVID-19 crisis is threatening these gains in social and physical health. Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans remain at loggerheads over a fifth COVID-19 aid package.

Impacts

• Job losses have been concentrated among less-skilled workers, setting back a decade of improvement to their economic and social well-being.
• Assessments of the budgetary impacts of unemployment relief should include the effects on other schemes such as disability insurance.
• The link between jobs and drugs is not tight, but the chaos caused by COVID-related closings and isolation has worsened the opioid crisis.