We examine the effect of job displacement on mortality, hospitalization, biomarkers, and health behaviors in South Korea. We find that the impact on health differs between severe and less severe outcomes and also by gender. Men experience little impact on mortality and hospitalization except for an increase in suicide deaths, whereas their biomarkers and health behaviors improve. Women experience an increase in mortality and hospitalization due to cancer, but no significant effects on biomarkers or health behaviors. The study emphasizes the need to consider a comprehensive range of outcomes to accurately evaluate the effect of job loss on health.

Social commentators have pointed to problems of workers who face “time stress”—an absence of sufficient time to accomplish all their tasks. An economic theory views time stress as reflecting how tightly the time constraint binds households. Time stress will be more prevalent in households with higher full earnings and whose members work longer in the market or on “required” homework. Evidence from Australia (2001), Germany (2002), the United States (2003), and Korea (1999) corroborates the theory. Adults in households with higher earnings perceive more time stress for the same amount of time spent in market work and household work. The importance of higher full earnings in generating time stress is not small, particularly in the United States—much is “yuppie kvetch.”