Love in the Time of Layoffs: Can We Get Together Without Falling Apart? Unemployment fears are now following us into the bedroom.

What does love feel like when you don’t know what tomorrow will bring? When life as you imagined it seems further and further out of reach? How do you know when it’s time to hold on to what you’ve got, or let go in the face of mounting anxiety? What if you’re so stressed out you can’t even think?

For people around the globe, trends like restructuring, privatization, mergers, downsizing, and relentlessly high unemployment are transforming intimate relationships. Chronic job insecurity is shifting the way we approach the idea of hooking up, having sex, staying together, and starting families. And it might just be changing the very nature of romance.One minute you’re happily planning a life together and talking about having kids. Then, suddenly, everything changes.

Joel B., a 30-year-old Australian environmental planner, felt that the world was his oyster. In his mid-20s he was designing transport systems for the city of Melbourne. He met Amy, a fellow Aussie, while traveling, and the two instantly connected. When she landed a job in London at a museum, the couple took it in stride and continued a long-distance relationship.

Then the bottom fell out of the global economy in 2008. Jobs in the government sector evaporated, including Joel’s. He decided to move to London, thinking to pick up work as a consultant in the private sector. Amy was facing a pay freeze, but at least she had work. They moved in together, joining forces to weather the storm.

But the storm did not pass. “This wasn't a short-term slump," says Joel. "The economic crisis was being used as an excuse to turn away from environmental planning to things like fracking. This was a long-term rebalancing of priorities.”

For the first time in his life, Joel had trouble finding work. The confidence he derived from being employed was ebbing away. Questions nagged. Should he keep looking for work in his chosen profession? Should he try a new career path?

Love is not an issue for Joel and Amy. There’s heaps of that. The challenge is figuring out how to build a life together in a brutal economic climate. "Do you maintain the relationship?" Joel wonders. "Do you put it on ice? As the stress mounts, the door opens to things like infidelity.”

After months of looking, Joel found a job – in Oman. “I miss her,” he says. “It was a shock to the system to move away. Not knowing when we would finally be able to have a decent life together. It's hard not feeling like a complete failure leaving her behind.” Joel wants to find work back in London to be with Amy. Yet every decision comes with a mountain of risks and pressures.

Such is the life of young lovers in the Age of Job Insecurity.

“Austerity policies place such a burden on young people," says Joel. "We have little savings. We’re told that we’re lazy if we can’t find permanent work. But this economic situation is out of our control.”

Joel’s story hints at how the social fabric is torn when jobs are precarious and people are forced travel long distances to find jobs. Conservatives are forever preaching about family values, but their job-destroying, anti-worker policies have made it harder and harder for young people like Joel to put down roots and reach the level of stability required for long-term relationships and children.

The most anti-family period in living memory for most is leaving a trail of broken hearts in its wake.

Complementary:Editor's Note: This article is part of an ongoing AlterNet series on job insecurity .