Drinking and unemployment: contrasting patterns among men and women

Research on unemployment has paid only little attention to drinking and drinking problems. From the 1970s onwards the association of drinking and unemployment has come under systematic study. Contrasting tendencies emerge from this research. This paper distinguishes three instances of drinking and drinking problems and examines their association with employment status, i.e., (i) frequency of drinking, (ii) frequency of intoxication, and (iii) frequency of health problems due to drinking. A panel survey was conducted in 1983-1984, consisting of a sample of Finnish men and women, originally jobseekers in industry. Prevalence data and results of logistic regression analyses on the association of the three instances of drinking and drinking problems with employment status are presented. The frequency of drinking was unassociated with employment status for men and women at either of the two measurement points. Neither did the frequency of intoxication show any clear association with employment status. In contrast, the frequency of health problems due to drinking was associated in a statistically significant way with unemployment among men. Among women the association was rather the opposite, but it was not statistically significant. The paper concludes that it is important to distinguish between overall drinking and drinking problems, and between the determinants of male and female drinking problems. It is likely that selective processes at the labour market as well as social causation during unemployment lie behind the observed association of male unemployment and drinking problems.