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Layoffs and Subjective Well-Being

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Synonyms

Dismissal; Displacement; Job loss; Laid-off; Unemployment

Definition

A layoff means a temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment, for business or for personal reasons, including plant closure, end of business work, unsatisfied job performance, public lockdown policy during pandemic or crisis periods, and so on. Jobless workers, currently available for work and actively looking for jobs, are considered unemployed. Laid-off workers who cannot find a job involuntarily enter the unemployment pool (Ehrenberg and Smith 2018).

Subjective well-being, including well-being in economic, psychological, and other domains, represents one’s perceived satisfactory condition about the meaningful and purposes of life (CDC 2018; see “Subjective Well-Being”). Economic well-being is commonly measured by people’s (expected) earnings, income and wealth. Psychological well-being is mainly measured by distress, depression, mental illness, health status, happiness, life satisfaction,...

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The views expressed in this chapter are solely those of the authors and do not reflect those of the National Central University or the United Nations.

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Correspondence to Li-Hsuan Huang .

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Huang, LH., Gu, D. (2021). Layoffs and Subjective Well-Being. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_1137

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