I think it's a stretch to say all jobs help mental status and self esteem. I think the point of the article is that relying on low unemployment as a main proxy

I think it's a stretch to say all jobs help mental status and self esteem. I think the point of the article is that relying on low unemployment as a main proxy of the health of the economy and how the workforce is doing overall, while pushing economic policies that try to mainly optimize that number, misses some pretty big points.