Objective: The present study examined the association between unemployment and household food insecurity during the 2007–2009 economic recession in the USA.Design: Longitudinal survey of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP; 2008–2011). Food insecurity was measured by five questions excerpted from an eighteen-item Food Security Scale. Unemployment was measured by a dichotomous indicator, the number of job losses and the total duration of all episodes in the observation period.Setting: As nationally representative data, the SIPP interviewed respondents in multiple waves with a time interval of four months.Subjects: The study created two analytic samples including working-age household heads employed at the beginning of the observation period. The size of the two samples was 14 417 and 13 080.Results: Unemployment was positively associated with food insecurity (OR=1·55; 95 % CI 1·32, 1·83;P<0·001). Similar results were obtained when the analysis controlled for food insecurity status measured before unemployment (OR=1·54; 95 % CI 1·27, 1·88;P<0·001). For households with the same duration of unemployment, one more episode of unemployment increased the odds of food insecurity by 8 % (OR=1·08; 95 % CI 1·00, 1·18;P<0·001).Conclusions: More in-depth understanding of the relationship between unemployment and food insecurity is useful to better identify and serve the at-risk population. Connecting unemployment assistance closely to nutrition assistance could lower the prevalence of food insecurity among unemployed households. Public policy should better account for both episodes and duration of unemployment to reduce food insecurity.

Social workers interact with families and communities that financially struggle and have credit challenges. Social workers could benefit from increasing their financial literacy to knowledgeably educate, assist, and refer families in financial need. Specifically, knowledge about credit is imperative in today's economy. This article provides information about financial credit, financial literacy efforts, and the basics about credit, credit reports, and credit scores. Discussion is centered on the roles social workers could play in assisting families to build credit and make sound financial decisions. Areas for policy advocacy about financial literacy and credit are delineated.

Objectives. We examined heterogeneous associations between job loss and unmet health care needs by family income level in the recent economic recession.Methods. We conducted logistic regression analyses with the sample from the 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation (n = 12 658). Dependent variables were 2 dichotomous measures of unmet health care needs in medical and dental services. The primary independent variables were a dummy indicator of job loss during a 2-year period and the family income-to-needs ratio. We used an interaction term between job loss and the family income-to-needs ratio to test the proposed research question.Results. Job loss was significantly associated with the increased risk of unmet health care needs. The proportion with unmet needs was highest for the lowest-income unemployed, but the association between job loss and health hardship was stronger for the middle- and higher-income unemployed.Conclusions. The unemployed experience health hardship differently by income level. A comprehensive coordination of applications for unemployment and health insurance should be considered to protect the unemployed from health hardship.