Recession rips at US marriages, expands income gap

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Recession rips at US marriages, expands income gap

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer Hope Yen, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 15 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The recession seems to be socking Americans in the heart as well as the wallet: Marriages have hit an all-time low while pleas for food stamps have reached a record high and the gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest ever.

The long recession technically ended in mid-2009, economists say, but U.S. Census data released Tuesday show the painful, lingering effects. The annual survey covers all of last year, when unemployment skyrocketed to 10 percent, and the jobless rate is still a stubbornly high 9.6 percent.

The figures also show that Americans on average have been spending about 36 fewer minutes in the office per week and are stuck in traffic a bit less than they had been. But that is hardly good news, either. The reason is largely that people have lost jobs or are scraping by with part-time work.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/ap_on_bi_ge/us_census_recession_s_impact