So, apparently your tendency to date borderline-unemployed artistic types who keep their money hidden in a shoebox under their beds is not your fault — as your parents like to claim.
You’re merely one of the growing number of unmarried women who are failing to find a good, employed man in today’s rough ‘n’ tumble world because, simply, there’s not enough of that to go around. Don’t you feel better now?
According to A Pew Research Center census analysis quoted by New York magazine, 78% of women “place a great deal of importance on finding someone who has a steady job” — because, you know, it’s nice to have someone around who can help pay rent/afford groceries/not steal from you.
Unfortunately for that 78%, though, the pool of dudes with jobs is apparently draining. We’re splatting on the concrete off the high dive here, kids. The number of men with gigs aged 25 to 34 per 100 women “dropped from 139 in 1960 to 91 in 2012,” according to Pew. So, basically, there are fewer employed men now than there were in the black and white days, thereby confirming my dad’s hypothesis that “men today are just so lost — maybe you should join a club of some sort” (minus that last part).
Pew then proceeds to attempt to make us all feel better by informing us that marriage isn’t really in fashion, anyway. In 2012, one in five people over 25 had never been married — as opposed to one in 10 in 1960. Also, two-thirds of people “under thirty think society is just as well off if people have priorities other than marriage and children” — you know, like finishing that novel or becoming CEO or finally setting up that ant farm.
So I guess that’s supposed to be the “buck up, kiddo!” of this study: Love and commitment is dead, anyway. Let’s look at another GIF.
Brenna Ehrlich
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