Economy Leaves Blue-Collar Men Without Brides

Reversing past trends, new Census Bureau data shows that those with college degrees are now more likely than those without them to get married before age 30. "It's thought that possibly the deteriorating labor market position of young, less-educated men has made it so that young women can't find suitable partners," says Richard Fry of the Pew Research Center in a "Marketplace" story on NPR.

Following "The Great Recession," the available service industry jobs pay notoriously low wages, making blue-collar guys not-so-great prospects as breadwinner husbands. "Not only is the labor market sort of difficult for them, now they're less likely to enter into marriage, so they don't get that economic advantage that comes from marriage," says Fry. Worse still, research suggests that single men are less productive than those with wives. (More marriage stories.)