本篇文章取材自RegisteredNursing这个部落格

 

From 1999 to 2016, the suicide rate in the United States increased by a troubling 30%. What's more, there is a clear gender divide in the prevalence of suicide in the United States-men commit suicide at more than three times a higher rate than women.

 

在1999至2016这短短的二十年间, 美国本土的自杀率就增加了30%, 更有甚者, 性别间的自杀率有著明显的差异-男性的自杀率相当于女性的四倍之多。

 

The CDC recently released a report showing the suicide rates of various professions in 2015. Given that job and money trouble ranks among the leading causes of suicide, along with Priceonomics customer RegisteredNursing.org, we thought we'd dive deeper into the data and calculate which professions have the highest and lowest suicide rates and how it varies by gender.

 

美国疾病管制与预防中心(CDC)最近公布了2015年就业人口的自杀率, 有鉴于各职业所对应的压力及薪水各异, 所以我们会根据RegisteredNursing(一个医疗网站)所提供的初步资料, 做进一步的分析, 并从中找出个别职业以及各性别的自杀率

 

近年来, 美国境内就业人口的自杀率节节攀升

 

We found that the profession with the highest suicide rate is Construction and Extraction, with 52.1 deaths by suicide per 100,000 professionals, a rate that is over 200% higher than the average profession. By a large margin, the profession with the lowest suicide rate is Education, Training, and Library with a suicide rate of 5.3%, nearly 10 times lower than that of construction/extraction professionals.

 

在本次的调查中发现,  营建业及采矿业的从业人员平均每十万人就有多达52.1个人自杀, 以约为平均自杀人次的两倍名列所有职业的首位, 而排名最末的则是教育, 职业训练及图书馆相关的行业-每10万名仅有5.3位自杀, 几乎为前者的十分之一

 

Additionally, in this data set, the suicide rate for males is 26.0 per 100,000 professionals compared to 7.1 for women. In fact, for all professions we looked at, men had a higher suicide rate.

 

另一方面, 单从性别的角度来看, 就业人口中男性的自杀率约为女性的三倍以上：每10万名男性大约有26位自杀, 而女性仅有7.1位。

 

男性的自杀率为女性的三倍左右

 

Before diving into the results, it is worth spending a moment on describing the CDC data we use for calculations. While the report from the CDC was recently released in November of 2018, the most recent time period it covers is 2015. And is just from 22 states.

 

在深入探讨结果之前, 先来看看本次调查所使用的方式以及资料来源: 虽说CDC是在上个月(2018年11月)公布自杀率的报告, 但已经是三年以前22个州(全美共有50州)的资料了

 

Perhaps most important to note is that the CDC provides suicide data at the highest level of "major occupational group." This splits the entire US workforce into just 22 occupations. As a result, many different sub-occupations are lumped together in just one occupation (for example, nursing, doctors, and dentists are all in one occupation).

 

尽管并不是近年的资料来源而影响了参考价值, 但CDC所提供的是以"主要职业别"为基准的资料-也就是将美国劳动力分成22个职业, 换句话说, 这样的分类较为简单明了, 所以依然有其价值所在(例如: CDC将护理人员, 医生及牙医归类在同一个职业别)

 

 

Across this data set of 22 occupations in 22 states, the suicide rate in 2015 was 16.9 deaths per 100,000 people, an increase of 10% from 2012.

 

综观本次横跨22州及22个职业别的统计, 2015年每十万人约有16.9人自杀, 相较于2012年有10%的成长

 

The next chart shows the suicide rate in 2015, split by major occupation group. While 16.9 is the average suicide rate, the rate varies substantially by occupation.

 

下方为2015年各职业别的自杀率, 从表中可以发现, 虽然平均的自杀率(以每十万人作为计算标准)为16.9, 但各职业的差距极大

 

 

表一: 各职业别的自杀率

资料来源: 2018年美国疾病管制与预防中心(CDC)的自杀率报告(2015年)

 

The occupation with the highest suicide rate is Construction and Extraction with 52.1 deaths per 100,000 people, nearly 40% higher than the occupation with the second highest suicide rate. The occupation with the lowest suicide rate is Education, Training and Library with a 5.3 suicide rate compared to 16.9 for the national average.

 

自杀率最高的是营建及采矿业, 每10万人就有多达52.1人自杀, 几乎是比第二名还多出40%, 而最低的职业则是教育, 职业训练及图书馆相关行业, 其自杀率仅约为平均的三分之一

 

Health care practitioners and health care support professions see 11 to 12.5 rate per 100,000; this includes nursing professionals.

 

而医护相关行业(包含护理人员)的自杀率约落在11到12.5之间(每十万人)

 

Do lower paying jobs tend to have higher suicide rates? We next juxtaposed BLS salary data by occupation group with the CDC suicide rates.

 

那么从上述的资料来看, 好像薪水越低的工作就有越高的自杀率, 但真的是如此吗? 所以接下来会把CDC所提供的自杀率报告与美国劳工统计局(BLS, bureau of labor statistics)的薪资统计做对照

 

 

表二: 各职业的自杀率及对应的薪水

资料来源: RegisteredNursing.org

 

In general, there is a small trend that higher paying jobs tend to have lower suicide rates, but the data is too noisy to make a conclusion. Additionally, some of the occupations with the highest suicide rates have salaries comparable to ones with much lower suicide rates. However, none of the highest paying occupations are also ones with high suicide rates, hinting there might be the relationship between pay and suicide rates worth exploring with more data.

 

从表二可以看出, 似乎有薪水越高的从业人员, 其自杀率就越低的趋势, 但不明显(相关系数为-0.156, 为低度负相关)且需要更多的资料佐证- 自杀率偏高的职业中不一定就代表薪水都偏低, 不过至少有一点可以确定的是: 没有一个偏高薪的工作所对应的自杀率是高的

 

The last time the CDC published this suicide rate by profession data was from 2012. How have things changed between then and 2015?The next chart rankings occupations by their increase (or decrease) in suicide rates during this year period:

 

我们来看看过往CDC的相关资料, 上次CDC在作这样的资料统计是在2012年, 那么这两份资料有什么差别呢? 在下方笔者会统整出这两者资料的数据差异: 到底12到15年间的自杀率增加(或减少)的幅度为何? 增加幅度最大的职业又是哪一个呢?

 

 

表三: 2012与2015年间的自杀率成长幅度

资料来源: RegisteredNursing.org

 

Given that overall suicide rates increased 10% between 2012 and 2015, it's not surprising that most of these occupations have had an increase in suicide rates. Nevertheless, a number of occupation have had increases in suicide rates far in excess of the national average; Food Preparation and Serving has seen an increase of nearly 50% and Arts Design, Entertainment, Sports and Media almost 40%.

 

就这三年间的自杀率成长10%来看, 上表中大部分的职业自杀率有所增加其实并不意外。不过, 有些职业的成长幅度实在是太大了, 像是食品制备及配送增加了50%, 而艺术设计, 娱乐, 体育, 传播媒体则有约40%的增长

 

Any analysis of suicide rates without discussing gender differences will be remiss in overlooking an important point: male dominated industries will have higher suicide rates because men have higher suicide rates than women. The following chart shows suicide rate by gender in 2015 across all occupations.

 

不过, 前面的分析并没有将性别列入考量: 男性居多的产业, 其自杀率会比较高, 这是因为男性的自杀率比女性来得高的关系-在下表我们会列出职场上生理男性与女性的自杀率

 

 

表四: 生理男性及女性的自杀率

资料来源: 2018年CDC统计2015年美国境内22州的自杀率

 

Men across all occupations have a suicide rate of 26.0 per 100,000 people, three times more than females. So are occupations with high suicide rates just an indication that there are a high percentage of men in that labor pool? Not exactly.

 

所有从业人员中, 每十万的生理男性就有26人自杀, 几乎是生理女性的三至四倍之间, 那么有高自杀率的产业中男性就业人口比例就比较多吗? 事实上, 并非如此

 

If we break down the suicide rate for each occupation by gender, we notice that even for the same occupation men have a substantially higher suicide rate than women.

 

如果从每个职业中各性别的自杀率来看, 我们发现所有职业的男性自杀率都比女性来得多, 而且有相当大的差距

 

 

NR: 女性从业人数过少, 无法列入样本计算

表五: 所有职业的自杀率都是男性比较高

资料来源: RegisteredNursing.org

 

For every single major occupation, men have substantially higher suicide rate than women. Not only that, but for most occupations, men commit suicide at a rate 3-5 times higher than women do. So yes, male dominated industries will have higher suicide rates than more balanced ones, but there is still variation in suicide rates by industry that is not explained by gender mix.

 

不论是哪一种职业, 男性的自杀率都比女性高出许多, 不仅如此, 上述的职业中大部分的男性自杀率至少等于女性的三到五倍, 因此可以说男性居多职业的自杀率都比男女比例较为均衡的职业来得高, 但我们并不能说自杀率越高的职业, 就代表男女比例越悬殊

 

Because of impact of gender, let's conclude by looking at which professions have the highest suicide rates for men and then also for women.

 

从前文中可得知, 性别可说是影响自杀率的关键, 所以接下来就来看各职业就业人口中男性及女性个别的自杀率

 

表六: 各职业男性的自杀率

资料来源: RegisteredNursing.org

 

Because men make up most suicides, it's not surprising that the list of professions with the highest suicide rates for men is similar to the overall list for both genders combined. In fact, the top 5 professions with the highest suicide rates for men is nearly identical to the top 5 professions with the highest suicide rates overall (though in a slightly different order).

 

从上表中发现其实与表一的各职业的自杀率非常相似-尤其前五名都是一样的, 这是因为男性的自杀率远多于女性的缘故

 

For women, the professions with the highest suicide rates is substantially different from the men, but in large part because the CDC did not publish the female rates for a number of professions with high suicide rates like Construction and Extraction due to low sample size in women. The following chart shows suicide rates by occupation for women, excludes those occupations:

 

而各职业女性的自杀率高低排名就与前者相差甚远了, 值得注意的是, 有些职业像是营建及采矿的女性从业人员实在是太少而无法列入统计

 

 

表七: 各职业女性的自杀率

资料来源: RegisteredNursing.org

 

The occupation with the highest suicide rate among females is Art, Design, Entertainment, Sports and Media (this occupation ranked second among men). The occupation that ranked second among women (Protective Services) also ranked highly among men. For women, the industries of Education, Training, Library, as well as Management have the lowest suicide rates (these two professions also have low rates among men). Of note, Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance has low suicide rate among women, but it is 5 times higher for men.

 

艺术, 设计, 娱乐, 体育及传播媒体类是女性自杀率最高的职业(同时也是男性自杀率的第二名), 另一方面, 女性自杀率最低的是教育训练等文书类型以及管理相关职业-这与男性别无二致, 而尽管建筑, 地面清洁及维护类相关职业的女性自杀率偏低, 但值得注意的是, 竟然只约等于男性的五分之一而已

 

值得注意的是, 地面清洁相关从业人员的两性自杀率相差甚远

 

In America, suicide is a rising problem, especially among men. For most professions we looked at, males commit suicide at rate 3-5 times higher than for women. While the national average is 16.9 deaths by suicide per 100,000 people, some professions have suicide rates almost three times higher than that for men. Even among a single gender, there is a huge variance among suicide rates. Higher paying jobs tend to have lower suicide rates, but low pay doesn't completely explain suicide rates since some professions have about the same compensation but vastly different rates of suicide.

 

从上述的内容来看, 近年来美国就业人口的自杀率日益增长-首先以性别来看, 无论是哪一种职业, 男性的自杀率至少在女性的三至五倍左右, 再者即使比较各种职业单一性别的自杀率, 都相差甚远-似乎越高薪的工作, 其对应的自杀率就会越低, 但反过来说, 低薪的职业并不代表就有高自杀率-有些职业有相等的待遇, 但有著不同的自杀率

 

近年来的自杀率节节攀升, 或许找寻心理咨商是解决的方式

 

As death rates in America soar from the mental health issues, stress and anxiety, and the Opioid crisis, it's important not to overlook suicide is rising in America and it's an issue that we would be remiss not to address.

 

或许近年自杀率的骤升, 与心理健康, 压力, 焦虑及毒品泛滥有关, 所以重视自杀相关议题, 并找出解决之道是相当重要的

 

后记与结论

1. 在2015年的就业人口中, 男性与女性的自杀率(每十万人的自杀人数)分别为26.0及7.1

 

2. 因为男女自杀率相差甚远, 各个职业的自杀率受到性别比例的影响很大

 

3. 似乎薪水越高的工作, 其自杀率就会越低, 但自杀率越高的工作, 并不代表其自杀率就越低

 

4. 自杀率最高与最低的职业分别为营建及采矿(52.1), 和教育, 职业训练及图书馆(5.3)

 

5 .值得注意的是,  2012至2015年间的自杀率有著10%的增长, 这中间的变化值得注意及深究

 

6. 本次研究为美国境内22州的就业人口统计, 但美国50州以及台湾的状况可能有所不同, 值得深入探讨

 

本文译自Priceonomics的The Professions with Highest (and Lowest) Suicide Rates一文, 中文翻译仅代表个人观点供大家参考，如有不妥处，欢迎指正