Financial stress and the long-term outcomes of job loss

This article examines the longer-term effects of job loss for middle income households in Australia. Specifically, it analyses the experiences of workers who lost their jobs in the 2001 collapse of an Australian airline, Ansett Airlines. Since Ansett employees’ savings were tied up in the Ansett corporate structure, its workers faced the double jeopardy of losing both their careers and their savings. The article illuminates the role of financial losses in overall outcomes and argues that an adequate understanding of post-redundancy experiences must incorporate employment, wellbeing and financial effects. The article concludes that employment policies pay insufficient attention to the financial risks that accompany job loss. To reduce the adverse impacts of job loss for middle-income households, institutional frameworks need to address the interactions among labour markets, financial markets and housing markets.