I have no idea, but a wild guess would be that easy-going types tend to get their rewards otherwise, and don't care as much about steady income. They're more l

I have no idea, but a wild guess would be that easy-going types tend to get their rewards otherwise, and don't care as much about steady income. They're more likely to let their money pile up while not bothering to buy things or pay the bills but also more likely to just blow it all on something unimportant. OTOH, highly-conscientious types get pleasure from paying the bills on time, buying themselves rewards for their work achievements, and having a steady well-managed cash flow. Another study (http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/alex.wood/cons.pdf http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/alex.wood/cons.p...) says "Conscientious people experience greater drops in life satisfaction following unemployment". Taken together, one could hypothesize that with extended unemployment, some people adapt (decrease conscientiousness) to reduce the suffering caused by unemployment and learn to get their rewards otherwise. I'm curious how volunteer work would fit in there too.