Gallup research shows a clear link between long-term unemployment and obesity.

The obesity rate rises from 22.8 percent among those unemployed for two weeks or less to 32.7 percent for those unemployed for 52 weeks or more.

"With record-setting rates of long-term unemployment in most U.S. states," the Gallup report states, "the health consequences of extended periods of joblessness have become a rising concern for policymakers."

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The long-term unemployed are also less healthy in other ways. Americans out of work for 27 weeks or more are nearly twice as likely to say they have high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Despite the obvious link, the cause-effect relationship isn't clear, according to Gallup. Unemployment may prompt unhealthy behaviors, causing people to gain weight. In other cases, pre-existing conditions may make it harder for people to find and keep work. Or both factors may be in play, creating a negative cycle of worsening health and dimming job prospects.

"Jobless Americans may be more likely to fall into such a cycle if a higher incidence of health problems hinders their efforts to find a good job," Gallup states.

Sadly, health problems for many continue even after they find work, Gallup warns, pointing to a 2009 study of Pennsylvania workers laid off in the 1970s and 1980s. Even 20 years later, the workers were 10 percent to 15 percent more likely to die in a given year than those who had not suffered a job loss.

Employers in industries requiring manual labor, like manufacturing and construction, will probably avoid job applicants who are obviously out of shape. High health care costs may prompt employers in general to avoid job candidates in poor health, Gallup notes.

"As a result, candidates who are obese and who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more may have two strikes against them even before they sit down for an interview."

The American Thinker blog blames food stamps for obesity among the long-term unemployed. People are less motivated find work if they have plenty to eat and have more leisure time, the blog states.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and certainly the provision of food to those who have limited incomes bespeaks good intentions. But it also may lead many to behavior that is not only unhealthy, but which limits their prospects of returning to gainful employment."

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