U.S. Suicide Rate Rose With High Unemployment

Every rise of 1 percent in unemployment accompanied by increase in suicide

Here’s a different way to measure the impact of recent Republican obstructionism on job creation in Congress: The rate of suicide in the U.S. rose sharply during the first few years of the Great Recession, according new analysis published in the medical journal, The Lancet. Researchers found the suicide rate between 2008 and 2010 increased four times faster than in the eight years before the economic downturn. Using number from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from the Department of Labor, researchers were able to make a correlation to unemployment. With every 1 percent increase in unemployment, the suicide rate rose by a rate of roughly one percent, they found. Without the increase, 1,500 fewer people would have taken their lives. That information makes it hard to comprehend why action wasn’t taken on the American Jobs Act. (New York Times)

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