According to a study by Businessweek, the job you take may significantly alter your prospects of walking down the aisle.
Businessweek compiled data over a 50-year period, from 1950 to 2010, from the US Census and the American Survey and determined which professionals are more likely to be divorced or have a fruitful married life.
The study revealed that dentists now have the highest odds of getting married in 2010 at 81 per cent. On the other hand, people working as wallpaper-hangers are most likely to have marriages that are heading for divorce.
The data from 1950 until 1980 showed that people working in the industrial world had the highest chances of getting married. However, jobs in that sector have dwindled since the 1970s. By 1990 and onwards, the health care industry became more stable and offered better job security. Businessweek suggested job security is able to "invigorate a relationship."
Meanwhile the lack of job security in the manufacturing sector may have led to professionals in that industry having the highest chances of having a divorce. The wallpaper-hangers, drilling machine operators and the knitter textile operatives are the top 5 occupations at risk of divorce in 2010, together with forge operators and mail handlers. This is a significant shift from the 50s, when artists were the most likely to be divorced.
In another article based on Businessweek's findings, The Mirror also noted that bartenders used to be most at risk for divorce from the 1970s until the 1990s, and attributed this to the amount of alcohol being consumed and the irregular work as likely factors in strained marriage relationships.
Nurses also made it to the number 7 spot in the 2010 list of jobs likely to be occupied by people who are divorced. This is the lowest rank the profession has had in 50 years. Nurses were consistently on the top of the list from the 1950s until the 2000s, possibly because of workplace stress - The Guardian reported in 2013 that two-thirds of employed nurses have considered quitting due to the hardships associated with their work.
