The association between unemployment and cause of death (‘natural’ or violent’) was investigated in a retrospective study of members of the bricklayers’ and carpenters/cabinet-makers’ trade unions in Denmark from 1971-1975. The bricklayers suffered more unemployment than the carpenters/cabinet-makers but for both unions as a whole it was found that there were significantly more unemployment periods in the group of violent deaths compared with natural deaths, whereas there was no difference in the frequency of unemployment between suicidal and accidental deaths.