- The type of job with the highest divorce rate is military work. An estimated 3.09% of workers who were married and had this type of job in 2019 divorced that same year. That’s nearly double the national divorce rate of 1.6%.
- Following military workers, those who have a job in health care support have the next highest divorce rate. Health care support workers (such as medical assistants, home health aides and orderlies) have a divorce rate of 2.65%, while those who work in food preparation and service occupations came in third at 2.49%.
- Drilling down to the 100 most common individual occupations, bartenders top the list with a divorce rate of 4.34%. Waitstaff and home health aides round out the top three with estimated rates of 3.40% and 2.87%, respectively. Interestingly, individual occupations with the highest divorce rate tend to be jobs that may not be traditionally viewed as having status or prestige on an organizational level.
- The jobs with the highest risk of divorce shift when looking individually at female and male workers. Bartenders still top the list for each gender, with divorce rates of 4.58% for women and 3.92% for men. Meanwhile, heating and cooling mechanics and installers slide up to second for women with a divorce rate of 4.41%, and receptionists and clerks land in second for men with a divorce rate of 3.12%.
- For both women and men, the three jobs that are least likely to see those who work them get a divorce are clergy, farmers and ranchers and physicians. The average overall divorce rate across these three jobs is 0.70%.
What this means is that based on these numbers, the divorce rate for military is and bartenders is as much as 7 or 8 times higher than a member of the clergy. How high is the divorce rate in YOUR career or someone you are thinking of marrying? Michael J