Social contacts, unemployment, and experienced well-being: evidence from time-use data

Thi Truong An Hoang () and Andreas Knabe
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Thi Truong An Hoang: Otto-Von-Guericke-University Magdeburg

Journal of Population Economics, 2025, vol. 38, issue 1, No 26, 28 pages

Abstract: Abstract We analyze how differences in the frequency and intensity of social contacts contribute to the experienced well-being of employed and unemployed individuals. In the UK Time-Use Survey, we observe that people generally enjoy being with others more than being alone. The unemployed tend to feel worse than the employed when engaging in the same kind of activities, partly because they are more often alone. The unemployed cannot spend time with other people at work but spend slightly more time with private contacts than the employed. In terms of experienced well-being, the slight increase in time spent with family and friends (which people enjoy a lot) offsets the loss of work contacts (which people generally enjoy only a little). Hence, we do not find that the differences in the social-contact composition between the employed and the unemployed are associated with differences in their experienced well-being.

Keywords: Unemployment; Happiness; Experienced well-being; Time use; Social contact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J22 J60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Working Paper: Social Contacts, Unemployment, and Experienced Well-Being. Evidence from Time-Use Data (2022)
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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-025-01083-6

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