The New York Times‘s “Economix” blog recently published some shocking figures from — and based on – the latest Census Bureau information.
These days, it’s common for both marriage partners to be employed. Despite the struggle for home/work balance that comes along with that arrangement in many cases, there is a definite upside in a recession: If one of you gets laid off, there’s still another income to rely on. The family’s not totally screwed.
But what about families who only have one income to begin with? And others where both wife and husband get the axe? Here’s what the Times found:
Based on my own calculations, 11,454,000 married couples had neither spouse working in March 2009. That’s 18.8 percent, or nearly one in five, married couples.
A year earlier, 17.5 percent of married couples had neither spouse working …
There was a slightly bigger increase in the portion of married-couple families that were reliant on the wife’s earnings alone, to about 9.9 percent in 2009 from about 8.2 percent of all married couples in 2008. This makes sense, given that men have borne the brunt of the layoffs in this recession.
Holy cow, ONE IN FIVE married couples with no work in March of ’09. Do these numbers accurately reflect what you see around you?
As I am currently still a student I cannot say too much about married couples, but I have one question. I thought that there is no social security system in the USA, so how do these couples survive? Doesn’t unemployment benefit run out after 5 years or something?
A lot of this confusion stems from different terminology, Berit.
Unemployment benefits are nowhere near 5 years. I’m not even sure how long they are – it used to be 6 months, it may be a year now.
After that runs out, I suppose you could apply for Welfare benefits – what you think of as Social Security.
Social Security here is like a public retirement program that nearly all workers pay into.
Hm alright, same system as here then. Is Social Security enough money to survive though?
No. Unless you call flea bag motel living “surviving”.
It really isn’t, but it was never designed to be a sole means of support. It is a system of a monthly payment based on your lifetime earnings, combined with Medicare -a type of health insurance. Most people also have supplemental health insurance to cover any gap in coverage (usually prescriptions, dental, etc.)
For instance, I have a pension plan that I contribute to through my employer, who then matches every dollar that I invest with $2.
I also have invested in a few funds over the years that hopefully will pay off when i do retire. So far, so good :)
I personally don’t know of anyone who has lost their job due to this recession, then again, the part of the country that I live in always seem to have a different economic climate than the rest of the nation.
I don’t know anyone personally who has lost their job lately. A couple of friends online lost their jobs but honestly they weren’t all that cut up about it because they were both moms who wanted to stay home with their kids anyway but felt they should work. Their hubbies are both still working and they’ve realized that they can live on one income. One is still looking for work, the other is just staying home until her kid starts school.
My hubby’s company did have fairly extensive layoffs and I know one of his colleagues was laid off the same day as his wife. They both work for the same company, different groups, and they were laid of a couple of hours apart. I believe the wife has since found work but the hubby is still out of work.
With a debt of 12.3 trillion and a annual budget deficit of 1.2 trillion,rising unemployment which results in fewer tax receipts,were in deep doodoo. For the first time in my 59 years,I’ve evolved from faith in our political system to deep anguish and concern. I just don’t see a way out of this mess!
Joey, I’m right along with you. I live in an area were unemployment is 14%. And the people with jobs, the hours are being reduced to 31 hours per week to cut hospitalization.
My husband is taking home a fraction of what he used and since I am self employed, I can only take on so much physically. Still eeking by and better than a lot, but it’s scary.
Well it depends on your field. If you’re an employee of an auto maker, financial firm or a factory worker you are probably living on food stamps right now. If you’re a member of Congress, a CEO or a physician you’re probably buying a second Mercedes. The middle class is evaporating folks, soon we will be a monarchy with the wealthy elite comprising the ruling class and everyone else will be a serf.
I’ve been unemployed for a year, my fiance was unemployed for a few months recently (after working with pitiful pay and hours and no benefits for several months), my dad has been unemployed for a year…
so yes, this makes sense. Really glad to have unemployment benefits.
There is not enough information in this article to make a judgment about how things are worse than they were or not. Do those “married couples with neither working” include retired people? Disabled people? People who are chronically on public assistance? You can’t assume that they are all people who would normally be working. The other thing is that with numbers that large, is a 1.3% change even statistically significant? I have an intuitive sense that things are much worse than they were, but that could be due to all the sensationalist news coverage you tend to get about issues on the tv and internet. I would need to see much more information before I could interpret these statistics.
We’ll all know more tomorrow when the new CBO numbers come out.
My fiance recently quit his primary job because A) it was a hostile work environment and B) his douchebag boss was barely giving him any hours anyway.
I’m really worried now, because we’re getting married in August, so we really, really need that income! He works part time at an art museum, and at our university, and donates plasma for money, but it’s still not enough. My two jobs alone just aren’t going to cut it–he needs to find something substantial, and soon.
It really keeps me up at night, sometimes…
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This article really hits home for our household. I lost my job in November, and then my husband lost his job 2 weeks ago. We are now both on unemployment benefits and trying to make ends meet by really working on our budget. We have learned to do without and to make cuts in our expenses. However, although we live on our unemployment money- I must say that they make it pretty unfair in the beginning. They have a “one week” waiting period, and make you have a longer waiting period if you received any severance. We both got an addtl. 2 weeks of pay, but that is what we were living on. And the one wait waiting period really hurts. Doesn’t the government know that when you are laid off you need all the money you can get? Not to mention that our severance pay was taxed 25%… once again, we need that money now and not next April. I wish they would have a better understanding.
Both me and my wife are laid off. I’ve been out for 9 months and my wife for 6 months. I hear I may be getting called back to my old job soon (I hope). Luckily we saved well and the only big bill we have is the house. As long as we get unemployment I’ll pay the mortgage.
This country is going to hell. I don’t see any improvement coming. This is the new normal.
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