Most Women Rather Not Date Unemployed Men

By Margarita Nahapetyan

It turns out that the real problem for unemployed men is not that they cannot pay their bills, but that they actually cannot get dates, a new survey has revealed. It's Just Lunch, a dating service for busy professionals, found that more than 75 per cent of women are unwilling to date a man who does not have a job. However, when it comes to the ladies themselves, they are still in demand regardless of being employed or not.

Nearly 1,000 people took part in the survey in which a huge percentage of women said that they would not date a man who was unemployed, partly out of fear that there will be a financial obligation if they date someone jobless, and also because being out of work and financially constricted could limit activities they can do in life. When the guys were asked the same question, only one-third of them said that they were unlikely to date an unemployed woman.

Within those 75 per cent of female respondents, 33 per cent said firmly that under no circumstances they would date an unemployed man, but 42 per cent said that they would maybe go out with a jobless guy, but that they were unwilling to spend much time in the relationship if he did not have a plan for getting a job in the nearest future. Only 21 per cent of the women in the survey said they did not see any problem in dating a man without work, no stipulations attached.

Women, however, insisted that their desire for an employed man does not have much to do with money; rather it was that the ladies were interested in being with someone who was engaged in an activity, believing work to be a beneficial activity for a guy to be engaged in and to keep him busy. In other words, the women are more interested in the type of a guy who is proactive enough to find a new job and be able to support himself in the future. According to Irene LaCota, spokesperson for It's Just Lunch, being unemployed will definitely make it more problematic for guys to date someone they don't already know as this is an area where women's old-fashioned views and beliefs in regards to sex roles seem to apply.

As to the gentlemen, apparently, they are not concerned with finding someone who already have plans for future and who keep themselves busy. Basically, more than 60 per cent of the male surveyors said that they did not have any problem dating a woman who was unemployed. Among all those men 19 per cent said that they would have "no reservations" and 46 per cent said that they were absolutely positive they would date a woman who did not work.

Though engaging in a romantic relationship may be a bit harder if you do not have a job, LaCota says that it is just like any other personal trait. All people are human, she said, and therefore, they all will have characteristic features that will be viewed by certain individuals as negatives. However, each person will eventually find someone who does not care about those issues at all, LaCota concluded.

It's Just Lunch was created in 1991 and since then has coordinated over two million dates for its clients. The goal of the company is to minimize the stress and maximize the efficiency of dating by setting people on casual and no-pressure dates over lunch, brunch or drinks after work. The matchmaking is being performed by IJL's team of dating specialists, not a computer program. The company has more than 150 locations in the United States, Canada and worldwide.