How marriage helps men off the dole and back into work



Being married is more important than education or having a mortgage in helping the unemployed get back to work, a study revealed yesterday.

It found married men are 33 per cent more likely to find a job after being made redundant than those who are single or divorced.

And it revealed being married was more important to finding work than having A-levels, which improved chances by 22 per cent, or a degree, which increased chances by 27 per cent.

Dole queue: The married unemployed have 33% more chance of finding a job



Having a mortgage also improved chances by 27 per cent.

The study, by the Office for National Statistics and published in Economic & Labour Market Review, looked at the work histories of 2,368 men between 1991 and 2006, which were recorded in the British Household Panel Survey.

Researcher Katy Long said marriage increased the employer’s perception of a job candidate’s reliability.

The study comes on top of evidence that married people are wealthier and healthier than those who are single or divorced.

Previous-research has also shown their children tend to be healthier, do better at school and avoid the pitfalls of crime and drugs.

Some politicians and academics have dismissed the importance of marriage, arguing it appears to be influential only because it tends to be well-educated high-earners who choose to marry.

But Jill Kirby, of the centre-Right think-tank Centre for Policy Studies, said: ‘The fact that marriage is ahead of all other factors shows that the commitment involved is very important. It is clear we need to do more to support marriage.’