Study: Long-term unemployment makes you fatter

Despite more free time for exercise, unemployment likely causes a slight increase in body weight, according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The increase in unemployment during the Great Recession greatly hurt the economy, but it did create a better opportunity to study the effects of unemployment on personal health. Unemployment has little effect on personal behavior when someone expects to quickly find a new job during a booming economy. But as unemployment drags on, as it did for so many during the recession, its effects on personal behavior increase. The average length of unemployment peaked at 40.7 weeks in December 2011, up from 16.6 weeks in December 2007.