Background: Research on future labour market marginalization following suicide attempt at young age is scarce. We investigated the effects of suicide attempts on three labour market outcomes: unemployment, sickness absence and disability pension.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study based on register linkage of 1 613 816 individuals who in 1994 were 16–30 years old and lived in Sweden. Suicide attempters treated in inpatient care during the 3 years preceding study entry, i.e. 1992–94 (N = 5649) were compared with the general population of the same age without suicide attempt between 1973 and 2010 (n = 1 608 167). Hazard ratios (HRs) for long-term unemployment (>180 days), sickness absence (>90 days) and disability pension in 1995–2010 were calculated by Cox regression models, adjusted for a number of parental and individual risk markers, and stratified for previous psychiatric inpatient care not due to suicide attempt.

Results: The risks for unemployment [HR 1.58; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.52–1.64], sickness absence (HR 2.16; 2.08–2.24) and disability pension (HR 4.57; 4.34–4.81) were considerably increased among suicide attempters. There was a dose-response relationship between number of suicide attempts and the risk of disability pension, for individuals both with or without previous psychiatric hospitalizations not due to suicide attempts. No such relationship was present with regard to unemployment.

Conclusions: This study highlights the strong association of suicide attempts with future marginalization from the labour market, particularly for outcomes that are based on a medical assessment. Studies that focus only on unemployment may largely underestimate the true detrimental impact of suicide attempt on labour market marginalization.