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Despite almost a century of research, the nature of the relationship between unemployment and mental health remains in dispute. One problem concerns the direction of causation: does behavioural disorder cause job loss (drift) or does job loss cause behavioural disorder (social causation) or both (reciprocal causation)? Another problem pertains to the severity of the mental distress associated with unemployment: only subclinical symptoms or severe diagnosis‐specific psychopathology? Evidence about the association of alcohol disorder and unemployment comes from two studies. The first is a reanalysis of data gathered in a survey in 1910 by Rowntree and Lasker. The second analyses the epidemiologic catchment area data collected in the 1980s. The results from both studies support both drift and social causation processes and demonstrate that at least one diagnosis‐specific psychopathology is linked to …