ABSTRACT
The Great Recession and its aftermath brought hardship to many American families. The Great Recession reminds again that even those faring well in the labor market in one year can see fortunes change when the economy weakens. More than eight million workers lost their jobs during the recession, experiencing dramatically reduced income, increased stress, and a variety of other negative outcomes for themselves and their families. These effects are important to document and understand in their own right, but they also offer important lessons in how low or variable income may affect the well-being of children and adults in a more general sense—lessons with important implications for anti-poverty policy. Job loss provides one important vehicle to do so, as families and children typically experiences dramatic change in income when a job is lost. There is strong evidence that job losses lead to substantive changes in health outcomes for affected workers.
