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Losing your job is bad—for you.
失業對你而言當然是件壞事。
But it could be good for the rest of us.
但丟了鐵飯碗這件事在我們其他人看來可能受益良多。
Because a study shows that a recession lowers mortality in the population overall—even as the out-of-work individual's risk of death rises.
因為一項研究表明，經濟衰退可以降低總人口的死亡率，即使失業人口的死亡風險上升也是如此。
That paradoxical finding appears in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
這一矛盾的研究發現已經在《美國流行病學》雜志上發表。
It's easy to imagine that the stress of getting canned could pave the way to an untimely demise.
我們會很容易理解被炒魷魚的壓力會加速個體的死亡。
But can joblessness really improve societal survival?
但如果失業可以改善社會生存能力呢?
To find out, researchers examined data from the US Department of Labor and a 20-year survey of so-called “income dynamics.”
為了尋找答案，研究人員對來自美國勞工部一份長達20年被稱為“收入動態”的數據進行了研究。
And they found that job loss is linked to a 73 percent rise in the probability of death for the newly unemployed—the equivalent of adding 10 years to his or her age.
之后研究人員發現對于新失業者而言，失去工作和73%的死亡率相關，失業的人會等于會繼續存活10多年。
At the same time, parsing the data state by state, the researchers found that people in general live longer during an economic downturn—an extra year for each percentage-point rise in unemployment.
與此同時，通過分析各州的數據研究人員發現，在經濟低迷時期人們會活得更久，失業率每增長1%，人們就會多活一年。
One possible explanation: when the economy is strong, people commute more and sleep less—raising the risk of car crashes and job-related injuries.
對此相對合理的解釋就是：當經濟發展良好，人們更多的往來通勤，造成睡眠時間減少—這就使得車禍及與工作相關傷害的風險增加。
Such accidents are less likely when folks are sitting on their couches polishing up their resumes.
這些事不太可能發生在坐在沙發上不斷修改簡歷的人群。
