Recession, local employment trends and change in self-reported health of individuals: A longitudinal study in England and Wales during the 'great recession'

Our research examines how local labour market trends during the early stages of the ‘great recession’ (in the period 2007-2011) related to change in individuals’ self-reported illness. We report results from analyses of a dataset drawn from the Longitudinal Study (LS) for England and Wales (source: Office of National Statistics), a very large longitudinal sample of individuals from the population census, followed up over time at each decennial census. These were linked to employment trend data for Local Authority Districts for the period 2007-2011, based on employment statistics for Local Authority Districts (LAs) in England and Wales. Controlling for various individual attributes, the risk of development of a ‘new’ long term illness during the ‘great recession’ was greater for those living in LAs where levels of employment were persistently low or declining to relatively low levels.