Notwithstanding a renewed interest in the well-being effects of job loss for individuals, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence on the dynamics of the adaptation to unemployment process. Using large-scale panel data, we model the dynamic path of adjustment towards pre-unemployment levels of well-being for a group of full-time workers who experienced job loss. We find that adaptation takes place in a non-linear fashion, with the speed of adjustment being higher for high earners, those with high pre-unemployment levels of life satisfaction and those who were most satisfied with the jobs before becoming unemployed. We also find that most of the adaptation takes place during the first year of unemployment, with adaptation speeds decreasing with unemployment duration, suggestive of possible habituation effects being present.