Among the 14.6 million currently without jobs in the U.S., about 6.6 million are long-term unemployed, meaning they have been out of work for more than six months. The suicide rate for all unemployed is two to three times higher than the national average, and the risk goes even higher the longer someone is without a job.

 

In Elkhart County, Indiana, where unemployment is 13.7%, the suicide rate is up 40% in 2009. In Macomb County, Michigan, which also has an unemployment rate of 13.7%, the rate increased by 73%.

 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) saw its call line go from 13,423 calls in 2007 to nearly 40,000 calls a year later.

 

Many of the unemployed who have taken their lives echo the same sentiments about despair and giving up on ever turning their lives around.

 

What’s not so clear is why members of the Customs and Border Protection are killing themselves in greater numbers recently. After going about four years without a single suicide, the Border Patrol has had at least 15 agents take their own lives from February 2008 to now. The agency’s leadership is at a loss to explain the sudden change. The suicide rate for the nation as a whole is about 12 per 100,000, but for Border Patrol agents it is at least in the high 20s per 100,000.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Suicide Dogs the Long-Term Unemployed. What Can Be Done to Help Them? (by Annie Lowery, Washington Independent)

Increase in Suicides among Border Patrol Agents Causes Alarm (by Paul Weber, Associated Press)