It’s been a tough, grinding year for millions of American households.
Consumers feel squeezed by the cost of groceries as prices rise on household staples like beef, coffee and chocolate. U.S.-based employers announced 153,000 job cuts in October, according to research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. And more than seven million people remain unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
These financial stressors are having an impact on how Americans live — and even on the decisions single people make when dating.
About a quarter of American singles (23%) say they would move in with their partners earlier just to save money, according to a recent study from DatingNews.com and the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, a research center dedicated to the study of sexuality, relationships and gender.
“Historically, the duration between meeting someone and moving in or getting married used to be a lot shorter,” says Justin Lehmiller, senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute. As the average age of marriage has increased over time, that timetable has gotten longer.
