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Is Orlando shooting suspect Jason Rodriguez a symbol of unemployment woes?
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By the time Jason Rodriguez left, Otis Beckford, 26, was dead and five others were injured.
November 6 – As officers led a handcuffed Jason Rodriguez into a police station, a reporter asked the divorced 40-year-old why he had attacked his former colleagues. "Because they left me to rot," said Rodriguez. “They” apparent was his previous employer, Reynolds, Smith and Hills, where Rodriguez was an engineer for 11 months before he was let go in June 2007.
Rodriguez told detectives that the company had fired him without cause and made him look incompetent. That affected his future employment opportunities. He was unemployed for a year and a half before landing a minimum wage job at Subway, where he worked until recently.
Subway could not give him enough hours however and he later filed for unemployment. When his expected check did not arrive recently, Reynolds blamed Reynolds, Smith and Hills, thinking they were harming his efforts to qualify for unemployment. His actions were horrendous; however his depressive reaction to his unemployment is actually very common.
Unemployment reports
A recent Rutger’s University survey provided insight into the growing unemployed population’s lives. Of those surveys 75% reported severe and daily stress; 66% reported depression; 60% felt helpless; and more than 50% felt angry. The potential for mental health problems is enormous. To make matters worse, the majority of the unemployed now lack health insurance (for physical and mental health) as well as medication coverage, just when they need it the most.
Last month the U.S. Government reported that 1.8 million workers have given up hope of finding work because they believe there are none available in the first three months of this year. That is an increase of 300,000 over the past six months.
Emotional reactions to job loss
Although the emotions of job loss are a universal experience, there are differences in the way individuals experience it. It is very similar to the stages of grief of losing a loved one. A person may pass through the stages in sequence or skip stages depending on external influences (such as being offered a new job or being rejected after an interview). Hopelessness and despair can creep in and for some people and they find it difficult to even look for work. The foundation of the person’s mental health before the loss of employment; the support of friends and family; and personal habits (like alcohol or drug use) all play a part. This is why it is a very personal experience.
Emotional outcomes
The National Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health America states that people who cannot find jobs are four times more likely to experience severe mental-health issues, including depression. Their recent survey shows that 13 percent of the unemployed say they have seriously considered harming themselves.
''The massiveness of this problem has not yet descended on the American public,'' said Dr. M. Harvey Brenner, a professor of health services administration at Johns Hopkins University, whose research has linked unemployment to increases in physical and psychological problems. ''We already see the harmful effect of structural change on workers, and it will get worse.''
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