AbstractThe rise in unemployment during the 1970s and early 1980s has affected more and more 'ordinary' members of society. Nevertheless, longitudinal comparisons between people's characteristics in 1971 and 198I confirm that the unemployed in 1981 were drawn disproportionately from disadvantaged sections of the community such as men who had previously been unemployed, men who had least skills, resided in local authority housing, or in deprived areas particularly in the North and West and Central regions of the country. Recent entrants to the labour market from socio‐economically disadvantaged backgrounds found particular difficulty in obtaining jobs.While the least skilled and most disadvantaged were at greatest risk of becoming unemployed, ill‐health, marriage breakdown, movement into local authority housing and downward occupational mobility can be shown to have followed unemployment in the early 1970s. These constitute some of the consequences of unemployment for the affected individuals.In this article we described how a study of the antecedents and consequences of unemployment helps explain relationships between unemployment and mortality and also suggests what might be expected at a time of high unemploym