30 Jobs Most Likely to End in Divorce (Based on Real Data)
They say your job has nothing to do with your marriage. Reality tells a different story. Stress, long hours, and low pay may not show up on a paycheck, but they show up at home.
In this gallery, we break down 30 jobs with the highest divorce rates. You’ll see how work pressure, income, and schedules can quietly wear down a relationship.
👉 Click or Scroll through the list to spot the careers most likely to end in divorce.
Table of Contents
How The Divorce Rate Job Data Was Calculated
This list uses U.S. Census data from the American Community Survey, analyzed through IPUMS. Researchers compared how many people in each job have ever been married to how many are divorced.
That gave a clear divorce rate for each role.
👉 Keep reading to see which jobs show the highest divorce rates, and what might be driving them.
30. Forming Machine Operators: Jobs That Grind Down Marriages
With a divorce rate of 23%, forming machine operators face constant stress and fatigue that doesn’t just stay on the factory floor. Long hours near loud, dangerous equipment and a median income around $44,000 create the perfect storm of physical and emotional burnout.
Over 100,000 workers fill this role nationwide, so it’s not a niche problem. When work drains your entire tank, there’s nothing left for the people waiting at home.
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29. Bus Drivers: Jobs That Strain Relationships Behind the Wheel
Transit and intercity bus drivers also face a 23% divorce rate. The pay, about $51,000, might be decent, but the hours are anything but. Nights, weekends, holidays, and early mornings throw off family routines and kill opportunities for connection.
Add in traffic stress and public safety responsibilities, and marriage often takes a back seat.
28. Garment Pressers: Low Wages, High Risk to Relationships
With a median income just under $30,000, garment pressers carry a 23% divorce rate, and for good reason. Repetitive physical labor, long hours standing, and low pay don’t just wear people down at work.
That exhaustion follows them home. Relationships can’t thrive when there’s no energy left to give.
27. Title Examiners: Legal Pressure That Spills Into Marriage
Title examiners, abstractors, and searchers show a 23.1% divorce rate, despite earning around $50,000. The job demands laser focus and zero mistakes, miss one detail, and someone could lose their property.
With over 50,000 people in the role, the pressure is widespread. The stress doesn’t clock out, and emotional withdrawal often follows.
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26. Typists and Word Processors: Quiet Jobs With Loud Consequences
Word processors and typists carry a 23.4% divorce rate and earn around $44,000. The work is isolating, repetitive, and mentally draining, long hours at a screen with tight deadlines.
That daily monotony can creep into personal life, dulling emotional engagement. Over time, even quiet stress gets loud at home.
25. Home Health Aides: Emotionally Drained, Financially Stretched
Home health aides earn just over $30,000 and carry a 23.4% divorce rate. They care for others’ loved ones during nights, weekends, and holidays, often at the expense of their own families.
Add the emotional toll of illness and aging, and it’s easy to see why relationships get neglected. Even meaningful work can leave nothing left for home life.
24. Dancers and Choreographers: Artistic Passion That Tests Relationships
With a 23.5% divorce rate, dancers and choreographers face instability that extends far beyond the stage. While the median income sits around $51,000, the inconsistent hours, travel, and physical demands create constant stress.
Fewer than 15,000 people work in this field, but the passion often comes at a price. Art may inspire, but it doesn’t always protect a relationship.
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23. Legal Secretaries: High Stress Behind Polished Desks
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants face a 23.8% divorce rate while earning about $49,000. They juggle legal deadlines, demanding bosses, and nonstop multitasking.
The pressure is high, and it rarely stays at the office. Over 150,000 people work these roles, most under stress dressed up in professional clothes.
22. Rehabilitation Counselors: Helping Others While Relationships Struggle
Rehabilitation counselors deal with trauma, disability, and emotional hardship, and it shows in their 23.9% divorce rate. With a median salary of $40,000, financial pressure only adds to the burnout.
Compassion fatigue is real, and when you spend all day caring for others, your own relationships often fall last on the list.
21. Licensed Practical Nurses: Strong Pay, Brutal Schedules
Licensed practical and vocational nurses face a 23.9% divorce rate, even though they earn more than $54,000. Rotating shifts, high emotional stress, and patient overloads wear them down fast.
Nights, weekends, and holidays aren’t optional, they’re expected. When all your care goes to others, there’s often none left for your own relationship.
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20. Pharmacy Aides: Retail Pressure Meets Low Pay
Pharmacy aides have a 24.3% divorce rate and a median salary just over $33,000. The job might seem low-key, but behind the counter, it’s a daily grind of customer service, tight regulations, and relentless pace.
Many work nights and weekends in retail settings, adding more chaos to already thin schedules. When the income is low and the pressure is high, personal relationships pay the cost.
19. Residential Advisors: Always On, Rarely Off Duty
Residential advisors face a 24.3% divorce rate, earning around $35,720 annually. Whether managing dorms or group homes, they live on-site or stay on-call, meaning the job literally never ends.
Emotional labor, conflict resolution, and burnout become constants. With no clear line between work and home, it’s no surprise relationships suffer.
18. Crossing Guards and Flaggers: Split Shifts, Split Focus
Crossing guards and flaggers show a 24.4% divorce rate, with a median income barely above $33,000. Split shifts interrupt daily life, often pulling workers away during both mornings and afternoons.
Add the stress of safety responsibilities and low public recognition, and it creates a slow simmer of frustration. That kind of hidden tension has a way of boiling over at home.
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17. Personal Care Aides: Heart Work That Hurts Relationships
Personal care aides earn just above $30,000 and face a 24.5% divorce rate. They care for the sick, elderly, and disabled, often solo, and with little time left for their own families.
It’s intimate, emotional work that drains you physically and mentally. When your job takes every ounce of patience, there’s not much left for anyone else.
16. Personal Care Supervisors: More Money, More Stress
Supervisors of personal care workers show a 24.6% divorce rate and earn around $48,000. They’re stuck between managing staff and pleasing clients, often under-resourced and overstretched.
The schedule is irregular, the crises constant, and the emotional strain rarely acknowledged. It’s a classic case of climbing the ladder but losing your grip on home life.
15. Switchboard Operators: Repetitive Work That Wears People Down
Switchboard operators hold a 24.7% divorce rate and earn just under $35,000 a year. The work sounds simple, but nonstop calls, multitasking, and sitting for long stretches wear people down.
It’s the kind of stress that sneaks up on you, quiet, repetitive, and constant. Over time, that burnout makes its way into relationships.
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14. Gambling Workers: High Stakes at Work, Higher Risk at Home
Gambling service workers have a 24.7% divorce rate and make under $30,000. They work in loud, smoke-filled casinos filled with pressure, conflict, and unpredictability.
It’s not just the guests who are on edge, staff take that tension home, too. When your day job feels like chaos, it’s hard to find peace after clocking out.
13. Mail Clerks: Repetitive Work, Real Relationship Strain
Mail clerks and mail machine operators show a 24.7% divorce rate, earning about $35,000. The job is filled with routine tasks, sorting, lifting, and scanning mail for hours.
But over time, the noise, repetition, and physical fatigue stack up. It’s not the kind of stress that explodes, it’s the kind that slowly erodes whatever energy is left for home life.
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12. School Bus Monitors: Long Days, Low Pay
School bus monitors earn under $30,000 and carry a 24.8% divorce rate. They’re responsible for keeping order during student transport, often across split shifts that disrupt the entire day.
It’s a tough job with little recognition, especially when traffic, weather, and behavior issues pile up. At home, there’s rarely time or energy left to regroup.
11. Telephone Operators: Quiet Jobs, Loud Stress
Telephone operators top out at a 25.5% divorce rate and earn around $38,000. Their job requires calm focus amid high call volumes, technical issues, and demanding expectations.
Most shifts don’t align with traditional schedules, which puts added pressure on relationships. There may be silence on the line, but at home, the tension speaks loudly.
10. Interviewers: Asking Questions, Carrying Stress
Interviewers (excluding loan or eligibility) show a 25.6% divorce rate and earn around $38,700. The job involves listening to strangers all day, navigating personal conversations, and staying polite under pressure.
Add in emotional fatigue, irregular hours, and quota targets, and there’s not much left to give at home. Listening might be the job, but burnout often silences relationships.
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9. Mail Processors: Decent Pay, Hard Conditions
Postal service mail processors have a 25.7% divorce rate, despite making close to $49,000. The work is loud, fast, and physically taxing, with rotating shifts that disrupt family life.
Every shift feels like a race against the clock, and that grind catches up quick. A steady paycheck doesn’t fix the damage done when the job wears you down daily.
8. Hotel Desk Clerks: Constant Smiles, Constant Stress
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks face a 25.9% divorce rate and earn under $29,000. Guests check in on weekends, nights, and holidays, exactly when family time matters most.
Behind the counter, workers juggle complaints, demands, and endless interruptions. The emotional labor is heavy, but the paycheck isn’t, and it’s usually the relationship that breaks first.
7. Sports Officials: High Pressure, Low Stability Off the Field
Umpires, referees, and other sports officials show a 26.1% divorce rate and earn about $36,000. Their work happens at night, on weekends, and during major holidays, right when families gather.
They’re under constant scrutiny from players, coaches, and fans. Even if they love the game, the lifestyle takes a toll on everything outside the arena.
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6. Massage Therapists: Emotional Labor That Doesn’t End at Work
Massage therapists earn nearly $50,000, yet face a 27.6% divorce rate. The job is intimate, hands-on, and often scheduled during evenings and weekends.
For those who are self-employed, there’s also financial uncertainty and pressure to fill up every hour. By the end of the day, most are emotionally spent, and that leaves little for their own relationships.
5. Hazardous Materials Workers: Dangerous Work, Strained Lives
Hazardous materials removal workers carry a 27.6% divorce rate and earn just under $47,000. The work is physically risky, mentally taxing, and emotionally draining.
Between protective gear, rotating shifts, and safety protocols, there’s constant tension. That stress doesn’t stay at the job site, it moves right into the living room.
4. Bartenders: Late Nights, Early Breakups
Bartenders deal with a 27.8% divorce rate and pull in under $30,000 per year. It’s loud, chaotic, and socially exhausting, every night. Tips are unpredictable, shifts are long, and there’s no room for routine or rest.
Relationships often collapse under the weight of inconsistency and burnout, especially when your schedule is the opposite of your partner’s.
3. Acupuncturists: High Pay Doesn’t Equal Relationship Stability
Acupuncturists earn over $72,000, yet the divorce rate hits 29.2%. Many are self-employed, balancing patient outcomes with business survival. Irregular hours, emotional investment, and financial pressure stack up fast.
While the job is fulfilling for some, the stress quietly undercuts personal relationships.
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2. Metal Furnace Operators: Physically Brutal, Personally Draining
Metal furnace operators, tenders, and casters hold a 29.5% divorce rate. They work around extreme heat and heavy machinery, often on night or weekend shifts.
The median salary is $47,600, but the job takes a real toll on the body and mind. When pain and fatigue are part of the daily routine, it’s relationships that usually crack first.
1. Telemarketers: The Hardest Job on a Headset
Telemarketers top the entire list with a 34.4% divorce rate and a salary near $31,000. It’s non-stop rejection, awkward scripts, and pressure to meet quotas, all while dealing with angry strangers on the phone.
There’s little respect for the role and even less reward. Eventually, it’s not just the calls that get dropped, relationships do, too.
Jobs With the Highest Divorce Rates: What It Really Means
Some careers don’t just test your patience, they test your marriage. Long hours, low pay, emotional labor, and unstable schedules create pressure that doesn’t stay at work.
The data is clear: certain jobs are tougher on relationships than others. It’s not always about income, it’s about how much of your energy the job takes before you walk through the door.
If your role made the list, it might be time to check in at home, not just punch in at work.
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