What is the causal relationship between unemployment and mental health amongst young people in Australia?

While such a relationship is recognized, there is debate as to the pathway. On one hand it is often argued that adverse unemployment experiences for youth will create long lasting labor market scars, which then affect the person’s employment career including future earnings, their well-being and social position. An alternative explanation is that a young person’s well-being, including their mental health, affects both their unemployment experience while young, and their future employment career.

This seminar will present the first empirical results of a study which addresses the problem of this ambivalent causal relation between mental health and unemployment amongst youth. The study, using HILDA data, adopts a life-course perspective to consider the relation of youth mental health and unemployment.