Unemployment is consistently associated with decreased well-being, but other productive roles may partly compensate for the social and psychological resources lost through job loss. Using a mega-analysis on six longitudinal panel studies covering over 500,000 observations across 20 European countries, we examine how age and volunteer status moderate associations between unemployment and life satisfaction. First-difference models show that transitions into unemployment are associated with declines in life satisfaction, with stronger negative effects observed among younger and middle-aged adults than among older adults. Contrary to expectations, volunteering does not consistently buffer the negative association between unemployment and life satisfaction, although supplementary analyses indicate that the compensatory role of volunteering may vary across age groups and national contexts. These findings indicate that volunteering is not a universal substitute for paid work and that the capacity of alternative productive roles to maintain well-being following job loss depends on broader social and institutional conditions.