Researchers have assessed the longer-term impacts of being sacked.

Losing a job is a stressful and life-disturbing event, but the impact of job-loss in the future is not well understood, especially when trying to find out if government benefits provide adequate support.

A new study has shown workers who experienced an involuntary job loss have 20-25 per cent lower employment rates the year after.

While employment rates improved gradually, five years later their employment rate remained around 10 per cent lower than comparable workers.

If workers found another job after an involuntary job loss, their earnings were around 25 per cent lower in the first year of their new job and still about 15 per cent lower after five years.

Government income support partially counterbalances these impacts, but total incomes of workers who lose their jobs remain substantially lower than those who do not.

The study “The longer term impacts of job displacement on labour market outcomes”  is accessible here.