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This outstanding book provides a rare insight into ground-breaking comprehensive research from Europe, Australia, Asia and the United States on the health impact of unemployment on the individual and the community. Featuring authors from across the fields of psychology, medicine, economics, sociology, occupational health and organisational development, Unemployment and Health outlines current theory and findings about the factors responsible for the generally detrimental health effects of being out of work or in unstable employment. This book is a vital resource for policy-makers, social workers, educators, researchers, students and anyone with an interest in the global effects of unemployment on the human condition.

Unemployment and Health is based on presentations by leading researchers at the Second International Expert Conference organised by the Scientific Committee Unemployment and Health of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) on 'Occupational Transitions: Unemployment, Underemployment and Health', held in Adelaide, Australia in December 2001. The activities of this body bring together researchers working specifically on occupational health issues related to employment with those focusing on the health effects of being out of work in a society centred on paid employment. Thus the ICOH Scientific Committee tries to bridge these two areas that are traditionally separated and to reduce the gap between unemployment research and occupational health. The Adelaide conference was the second international conference. The first one, held in Paris in 1998, focused on interventions with unemployed people. Additional contributions have been invited from other leading researchers who were unable to attend the conference.

About the Author

Thomas Kieselbach is professor of Work and Health Psychology and head of the Institute for Psychology of Work, Unemployment, and Health (IPG) at the University of Bremen, Germany. During the last 24 years the IPG has concentrated on research in the areas of unemployment, socialisation to work and health promotion. He worked from 1993-1998 as professor for Health Psychology at the University of Hannover. He has published 25 books and more than 200 articles in eight languages in national and international journals. Since 1990 he has been the editor of the book series Psychology of Social Inequality (VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften at Springer). He serves as a reviewer for various international and national journals and is a member of the editorial board of Ergonomia. He coordinated two EU-funded research consortia on Youth Unemployment and the Risk of Social Exclusion (1998-2000) and Social Convoy and Sustainable Employability: Innovative Outplacement/Replacement Counselling Strategies (2000-2004). He also participated in several European research projects as national partner (e.g., Unemployment and Mental Health, Local Initiatives to Combat Social Exclusion, European Career Management Training Foundation, Monitoring Innovative Enterprise Restructuring in Europe). His main research areas include unemployment and health, evaluation of interventions, community psychology, health psychology, and occupational health. Since 2000 and until 2009 he is chairman of the Scientific Committee Unemployment and Health of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH). In 2003 he was appointed as member of the Policy Committee of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) and chairman of its Subcommission Psychology of Unemployment.

Tony Winefield, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Centre for Applied Psychological Research at the University of South Australia. He obtained his PhD at University College London, and worked at the University of Adelaide for many years before joining the University of South Australia in 1999 as Foundation Professor of Psychology. From 1980-1989 he directed a 10-year longitudinal investigation of youth unemployment, culminating in more than 50 publications, including the book: Winefield, A.H., Tiggemann, M., Winefield, H.R. & Goldney, R.D. (1993). Growing Up with Unemployment: A Longitudinal Study of its Psychological Impact. In 1993 he was made a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and in 2000 he gave an invited State of the Art address on the psychology of unemployment at the 27th International Congress of Psychology, Stockholm. Tony has published extensively on the psychology of unemployment, organisational stress, and learned helplessness, and in 2003 he received the Elton Mayo Award from the Australian Psychological Society's College of Organisational Psychologists for "Outstanding contributions to Industrial/ Organisational Psychology Research and Teaching". He is currently Associate Editor of the International Journal of Stress Management.

Carolyn Boyd is a research assistant at the University of South Australia's Centre for Applied Psychological Research. She is also completing a doctoral thesis at Flinders University in South Australia. Her research interests include generativity and adult development and work-life balance.

Sarah Anderson is a research assistant at the Centre for Applied Psychological Research at the University of South Australia. She is currently working on a longitudinal study that follows school leavers into the workforce. She is also a PhD candidate in Psychology at the University of South Australia. Her interests include transition into work and the effects of employment status on health, well-being and worker attitudes.

About the Editors

Thomas Kieselbach, Anthony H. Winefield, Carolyn Boyd and Sarah Anderson