Identifying the Most Common Professions Affected by Divorce in NJ

Divorce Can Sneak into the Cracks Left By Certain Professions in New Jersey

High stress, irregular hours, long separations, and hazardous conditions, these are some of the job conditions that cause continuous strain on relationships, leading to divorce. Some jobs and professions are more likely to contribute to divorce than others. Some occupations are less likely to end a relationship. Not surprisingly, more financially stable jobs are connected to lower divorce rates. Money is high on the divorce reasons list, along with childrearing differences and communication problems. Add on stressors from difficult jobs, and you understand why divorce still hovers around 50%.

Fifteen to twenty years ago, over half of the first-time marriages ended in divorce. Though the divorce rate is declining, the marriage rate is also declining. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports divorces are down 1.3% per 1,000 people from 21 years ago. But marriages also dipped 2.1% per 1,000 people. More adults in their forties or younger are opting out of wedlock for fear of divorce. Other contributors include later starting careers, more women with higher education degrees, and specific occupational hazards.

Common Work Environments Impacted by Divorce Rates in NJ

Occupations with work atmospheres likely to aggravate marital tensions are in the entertainment, travel, food, and textile production industries. Repetitive jobs, like factory work and call operators, also carry considerable responsibilities in operating dangerous machines and dealing with frustrated people. Additionally, repair people in air conditioning, refrigeration, or electrical works suffer the same fate as many of the high-divorce occupations: danger, irregular schedules, and dealing with unhappy people. Take carpenters, for example. Like many repair workers, they suffer injuries more often than other professions, adding tension in relationships as one spouse is caretaking more than the other. At the same time, the other feels lousy too often.

Other victims of service burnout jobs are those who deal with drunk or stressed people, such as gaming and casino managers, bartenders, flight attendants, and gaming services workers. The late hours of an entertainment and nightlife job may cause marital discontent and suspicion. Other high frustration and dangerous occupations subject to high divorce rates include rolling machine setters, switchboard operators, extruding machine operators, telemarketers, textile knitting operators, and compacting machine operators, according to 2021 statistics reported by various sources.

The Effect of Finances, Environment, and Stress on Straining Relationships

These occupations have a sprinkling of each. For example, low pay and instability make bartending a high-risk career for divorce, as does being a switchboard operator or telemarketer. Dealing with people for low income all day does not make a happy spouse. And flight attendants’ long absences, irregular schedules, and travel fatigue increase the likelihood of irritability in a marriage. Also, high-risk industrial jobs are dangerous, stressful, and low paying.

Thus, it is no surprise that more financially stable occupations like actuaries, scientists, medical professionals, clergy, physical therapists, doctors, farmers, ranchers, and engineers have lower divorce rates. Regular hours, job satisfaction, and higher pay make people feel valued, healthier, and satisfied with their work, which likely spills over into their relationships. And even though medical workers, especially nurses, sometimes leave the profession burnt out and underappreciated, the higher-paying service professions have more job satisfaction. However, the more stressful the job, like nurse anesthetists, the less likely they will maintain their relationships. The stress of life and death decisions all day leaves a spouse drained, with little left for their partner.

The Impact of Unsatisfying Day-to-Day Work Duties

Typically, people become nurses, doctors, physical therapists, and clergy members to help others. While the job may be challenging, helping people brings more personal gain than producing products the makers may never see people enjoying. Assembly line factory workers may not even see the finished product they worked to build. But even healthcare workers experience low job satisfaction proportional to their pay and status. For example, medical assistants, orderlies, and home health aides have high divorce rates. In a Lending Tree job survey, these healthcare support jobs were second highest for divorce at 2.65%. Having less control over their jobs may also have something to do with it. Creative jobs with more control over their work, like engineers, have higher job satisfaction and lower divorce rates.

The Adverse Combination of Divorce and Military Jobs

However, if you are an engineer or have a job in the military, you are more prone to divorce. Being in the military has the same challenges as the top divorce rate occupations: irregular hours, extended absences, high pressure, low pay, and high risk for death or permanent injury. And those who see battle may suffer long-term psychological and emotional pain that erodes marriages. To add to the strains, many service members return to children, who are strangers, and to estranged spouses who may have strayed from the marriage.

A Couple of Examples of How Some Occupations can Drain Marriages

Unsurprisingly, the professions most people love to hate suffer danger, stress, and public disdain, such as corrections officers, probation officers, tax collectors, and revenue workers. Like administrators, these jobs can be ministerial or dangerous, with very little job satisfaction that produces a numbing effect. People can lose their compassion for those they serve when they experience so much anger directed at them. On the opposite end of the spectrum, overly compassionate work can wear on a marital relationship, too. Those in the animal caretaking business, like trainers, vet techs, and rescue operators, may get compassion fatigue that leaves workers with nothing to give to their partners. They may also suffer deep depression and anger, which add to their marital conflicts.

The Montanari Law Group Can Help Your Lessen the Stress of Your Divorce

Demanding occupations strain relationships and increase divorce, keeping the rate steady, despite recent downward trends. Divorce is rarely stress-free, but quality legal representation is the first step in reducing unnecessary challenges. Expert, compassionate counsel, can make the divorce process less intimidating. Financial and relationship strains most often get worse when divorcing. If you are divorcing, contact Montanari Law Group to find assistance from a legal professional you can trust to look out for your best interests. In our firm, you can feel confidence and ease with our seasoned family lawyers, who understand how to work with parties, judges, and attorneys to efficiently move through the family law system and finalize your divorce with the least possible stress.

Contact a family law attorney at The Montanari Law Group for your divorce-related needs. We frequently advocate for spouses in divorce and post-divorce matters in Haledon, Kearny, West Orange, Wayne, Elmwood Park, Montclair, and or other Passaic County and North New Jersey neighboring towns. The consultation is always free and confidential. Call (973) 233-4396 for further assistance now.