The effects of unemployment and the relationship to symptoms of psychological distress was studied in young, male and single clients on welfare in Stockholm in 1985. One hypothesis was that unemployed men would report more symptoms of psychological distress than men who had employment. Another hypothesis concerned the relationship between the social-psychological functions of work according to the so-called "deprivation theory" of Marie Jahoda and psychological distress as measured by the General Health Questionnaire. Results showed significantly more signs of psychological distress among the unemployed and also more distress among unemployed men with low access to the social-psychological functions of work compared to unemployed men with higher values. Stepwise regression analysis showed that the latent functions had a strong effect on well-being but the effect of employment/unemployment was weaker. This cross-sectional study gave no indications of different reactions in this group of hard-core unemployed men compared to other groups of unemployed in Sweden. Longitudinal studies are needed on this group to test the direction of the causal influence.