The effect of unemployment on couples separating in Germany and the <scp>UK</scp>

Objective This article examines how unemployment affects the separation risk of heterosexual coresiding couples, depending on couples' household income and whether men or women become unemployed. Background Unemployment may decrease as a drop in resources makes more costly—or it increase if creates stress reduces quality couple relations. Moreover, be detrimental for couples rather than women, low-earners high-earners, Method adopts perspective assesses heterogeneous effects based longitudinal data—large panels from Germany UK using discrete-time event history models. Results For both countries, results show that annual rate almost doubles after an spell: It increases 0.9% to 1.6% per year. effect does not vary when lose their job. The is somewhat higher low-income high-income UK, but overall differences are small. Conclusion Findings strengthen unions, them vulnerable—regardless which partner becomes unemployed regardless household's economic resources.