I wonder if it was more of a cultural issue. The article states that civil servants were difficult to fire, implying you could expect to have a job for life. Conversely, private sector jobs had some severance pay which could bridge the gap between getting a new job. It's not clear if the ex-civil servants had this to fall back on in this case.

A radical negative change in the working environment combined with no safety net seems like a recipe for depression. Maybe these people were ill prepared for the upheaval and had no idea how to cope with it.