> many, many humans derive a significant chunk of their self-worth and life's purpose from their jobs.

Men, or women?

Not trying to raise gender role controversies. It's just been my observation, throughout my life experience, that men, as the primary public-sphere producers and providers, are much more tethered to public-sphere occupational identity than women. This seems validated in the experience of the structurally unemployed, e.g. in the former industrial regions.

As women are 50% of the population, give or take, I expect the politics of this might flow differently for them than for men, as a bloc.