I went through some posts on the internet and I came across a study conducted by a group of experts from various universities in the country. The research showed interesting and gloomy facts between divorce and unemployment. Here’s a link to the article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3347912/. In the post, the author talked about his unfortunate experience and how he was led to believe that his unemployment caused his wife to divorce him. Though he found a better paying job few months after they got separated, the damage has been done and the gap between them is already too wide to bridge – divorce was inevitable.

Why is this happening?

Here are some conclusions I made after going through the report and further research regarding the job loss-divorce relationship.

1. Job Loss Increases Tension between Marriages

The post’s author is honest enough to tell us that they’ve been experiencing some negative set-backs in their marriage before losing his job. This led me to conclude that unemployment increases the tension between marriages. It serves as a catalyst and increases the degree of dissatisfaction which eventually leads to divorce if left unresolved.

2. Unemployment Disrupts the Social Norm that Men are Breadwinners in the Family

I know that involving money between love and relationships is unethical but we need to face the fact that the study says otherwise. The results showed that employment encourages women to stay in the marriage. Women are more likely to leave because they can no longer see the economic security in their marriage especially today where unemployment today might mean no job forever.

3. increased Fear and Worries

How are we going to pay the bills? How are we going to pay the car, the house, the school? How are we going to put food in the table? Stress and worries grow as daily expenses drains the savings account.  These are just some of probably hundreds of insecurity and fear-provoking thoughts caused by unemployment. Instead of finding ways to make ends meet, most people resort to an exit strategy to end this dilemma once and for all.

Despite these horrifying facts, the author at the end said that they are not happy with their marriage anymore – even before losing his job.  His unemployment merely acts as a catalyst that hastened their divorce. I knew some couples who survived the perils of unemployment. In the end, it’s still up to us. Time will tell us whether a relationship is working or not and that is where we make a stand to end it or patch it up.