LOS ANGELES, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Downsizing extends far beyond laid off workers and the people who depend on their paychecks, extending to social and community groups, U.S. researchers say.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Michigan in Ann Arbor say even a single layoff has a lasting impact on a worker's inclination to volunteer and participate in a whole range of social and community groups and organizations important for the effective functioning of neighborhoods, schools, communities.
The study, published in the journal Social Forces, finds that workers who had experienced just one dismissal from a job were 35 percent less likely to be involved in their communities than their counterparts who had never experienced a job loss.
UCLA sociologist Jennie E. Brand and University of Michigan sociologist Sarah A. Burgard looked at 4,373 participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which has tracked a group of 1,957 Wisconsin high school graduates for more than 45 years, gathering detailed information on their IQs, education, careers, psychological well-being, family and social lives.
Born between 1939 and 1940, the group belongs to what has been described as "a cohort of joiners" or inclined to participate in community and social groups.
