Job Loss Anxiety Hurts More Than No Job at All

Worried about your job? It may be better for your health if you just quit, new research suggests. Looking at studies of nearly 2,000 adults, scientists at the University of Michigan have found job loss anxiety can be more harmful to your health than unemployment, hypertension, or even smoking, Ann Arbor News reports. “These findings apply much more broadly today than they did even a few years ago," sociologist Sarah Burgard tells LiveScience.

The research is based on how participants viewed their own physical health. "We found that people who were persistently concerned about losing their jobs reported significantly worse overall health in both studies and were more depressed in one of the studies than those who had actually lost and regained their jobs recently," Burgard says.