Bunny77
New Member
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-state-of-unions-report-20091214,0,193252.story
Will post more thoughts later... just following the general trend of our threads about marrying well, etc... interesting to see this article today.
By Linda Shrieves, Orlando Sentinel
December 12, 2009
Stand on the front lines of the recession, as therapist Erica Karlinsky has, and the view for married couples isn't rosy.
Karlinsky, a Lake Mary psychologist, now spends a lot of her time counseling men who've lost their jobs — or wives who are dealing with an unemployed husband who won't get off the sofa or won't stop crying.
The stress of job losses is impacting families from all backgrounds, but perhaps none are more affected than blue-collar families, who have been hit hard by the recession, according to a new report from the National Marriage Project.
And experts worry that when the recession ends and the economy improves, the divorce rate will spike again — with many of the divorces concentrated among the working class. That may further widen what sociologists call the nation's "divorce divide" — a growing gap between the divorce rates of working-class Americans and college-educated Americans.
"Working-class couples are already vulnerable," said Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. "The recession is probably shaping up to be one more factor driving working-class marriages down."
Men have borne the brunt of this recession, accounting for 75 percent of the job losses, according to the report, titled, "The State of Our Unions, Marriage in America 2009: Money & Marriage." And blue-collar men have been hit hard. In September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 4.9 percent of college-educated women and 5 percent of college-educated men were unemployed, while 8.6 percent of women with a high-school diploma and 11.1 percent of men with a high-school diploma had lost their jobs.
For those men particularly, the recession has been devastating.
"I'm seeing depression in men and a sense of hopelessness," said Karlinsky. "These are men who are very surprised by having to look for a new job in their 40s or their early 50s. They were safe; they were secure. … and now they're feeling very paralyzed."
While the report delivered some good news — the number of Americans getting divorced has dropped since the recession began — experts think that may be temporary. The nation's divorce rate fell from 17.5 percent in 2007 to 16.9 percent in 2008. There is no data in the report specific to Florida.
In Central Florida, divorce numbers are also down. In Orange County, the number of divorce filings dropped 4.5 percent from 2007 to 2008. And that drop accelerated this year. In the first half of 2009, divorce filings were down 9 percent from the same period in 2008.
If the Great Depression is any gauge, divorces will spike again as the economy improves. In 1932, during the depths of the depression, the divorce rate bottomed out — 25 percent lower than it had been in 1929. But those years of hardship took their toll. In 1934, the divorce rate started climbing again, and by 1940, the divorce rate was higher than it had been before the depression, said Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Cherlin and others predict that we'll see the same kind of divorce echo after this recession.
"I think we'll continue to see a strong divide between the haves and the have-nots in our economy," Cherlin said. "And, for maybe the first time in history, young men without college educations no longer think they can have a better life than their fathers have."
Since the 1970s, demographers and sociologists have watched the pattern develop: Couples with college educations are more likely to stay married and blue-collar families are more likely to get divorced. While finances aren't the sole reason couples split, arguing over money is one of the best predictors of divorce, according to the report.
"The erosion of good jobs for working class men is really corrosive for marriage," Wilcox said. And it holds true for almost everyone — blacks, Latinos and whites.
One reason, say experts, is that men are expected to be the primary breadwinner, even in families in which the wife works. But as high-paying manufacturing and union jobs have disappeared, it has been harder for men without college degrees to make a good living.
Meanwhile, women without college degrees have had more opportunities as the number of "pink collar" jobs — in social services, health care and education — has increased.
And for families, that adds up to more stress. "When moms go back to work, guess what? She's still taking care of the house, handling the child care and cooking the meals," said Orlando therapist Pam Goldsmith. "She may not know how to ask for more help. For a lot of families, these changes are causes a lot of stress on the marriage."
Will post more thoughts later... just following the general trend of our threads about marrying well, etc... interesting to see this article today.
By Linda Shrieves, Orlando Sentinel
December 12, 2009
Stand on the front lines of the recession, as therapist Erica Karlinsky has, and the view for married couples isn't rosy.
Karlinsky, a Lake Mary psychologist, now spends a lot of her time counseling men who've lost their jobs — or wives who are dealing with an unemployed husband who won't get off the sofa or won't stop crying.
The stress of job losses is impacting families from all backgrounds, but perhaps none are more affected than blue-collar families, who have been hit hard by the recession, according to a new report from the National Marriage Project.
And experts worry that when the recession ends and the economy improves, the divorce rate will spike again — with many of the divorces concentrated among the working class. That may further widen what sociologists call the nation's "divorce divide" — a growing gap between the divorce rates of working-class Americans and college-educated Americans.
"Working-class couples are already vulnerable," said Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. "The recession is probably shaping up to be one more factor driving working-class marriages down."
Men have borne the brunt of this recession, accounting for 75 percent of the job losses, according to the report, titled, "The State of Our Unions, Marriage in America 2009: Money & Marriage." And blue-collar men have been hit hard. In September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 4.9 percent of college-educated women and 5 percent of college-educated men were unemployed, while 8.6 percent of women with a high-school diploma and 11.1 percent of men with a high-school diploma had lost their jobs.
For those men particularly, the recession has been devastating.
"I'm seeing depression in men and a sense of hopelessness," said Karlinsky. "These are men who are very surprised by having to look for a new job in their 40s or their early 50s. They were safe; they were secure. … and now they're feeling very paralyzed."
While the report delivered some good news — the number of Americans getting divorced has dropped since the recession began — experts think that may be temporary. The nation's divorce rate fell from 17.5 percent in 2007 to 16.9 percent in 2008. There is no data in the report specific to Florida.
In Central Florida, divorce numbers are also down. In Orange County, the number of divorce filings dropped 4.5 percent from 2007 to 2008. And that drop accelerated this year. In the first half of 2009, divorce filings were down 9 percent from the same period in 2008.
If the Great Depression is any gauge, divorces will spike again as the economy improves. In 1932, during the depths of the depression, the divorce rate bottomed out — 25 percent lower than it had been in 1929. But those years of hardship took their toll. In 1934, the divorce rate started climbing again, and by 1940, the divorce rate was higher than it had been before the depression, said Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Cherlin and others predict that we'll see the same kind of divorce echo after this recession.
"I think we'll continue to see a strong divide between the haves and the have-nots in our economy," Cherlin said. "And, for maybe the first time in history, young men without college educations no longer think they can have a better life than their fathers have."
Since the 1970s, demographers and sociologists have watched the pattern develop: Couples with college educations are more likely to stay married and blue-collar families are more likely to get divorced. While finances aren't the sole reason couples split, arguing over money is one of the best predictors of divorce, according to the report.
"The erosion of good jobs for working class men is really corrosive for marriage," Wilcox said. And it holds true for almost everyone — blacks, Latinos and whites.
One reason, say experts, is that men are expected to be the primary breadwinner, even in families in which the wife works. But as high-paying manufacturing and union jobs have disappeared, it has been harder for men without college degrees to make a good living.
Meanwhile, women without college degrees have had more opportunities as the number of "pink collar" jobs — in social services, health care and education — has increased.
And for families, that adds up to more stress. "When moms go back to work, guess what? She's still taking care of the house, handling the child care and cooking the meals," said Orlando therapist Pam Goldsmith. "She may not know how to ask for more help. For a lot of families, these changes are causes a lot of stress on the marriage."
erplexed
