BACKGROUND Most research linking jobs to marriage formation focuses on how job contexts and prospects affect singles' paces of entering marriage. Direct evidence on whether job traits shape singles' desire for marriage and actions toward forming a union remains scarce. OBJECTIVE We examine how changes in a range of job characteristics correspond to alterations in never-married people's intention to marry and actions taken to meet romantic partners in Japan, a country with increasing inequality in job quality and declining marriage rates. METHODS We use longitudinal data from the Japan Life Course Panel Survey to fit fixed-effects models, which take into account unobserved heterogeneity among people with differing jobs. RESULTS We find that rises in job insecurity and workplace staffing shortages weaken, whereas increases in income and job autonomy strengthen, men's intention to marry. Moreover, men with a low marriage desire are especially likely to withdraw from partner-seeking activities when they have low-income jobs or face great deadline pressure at work. Job prospects and quality are generally less important to women's desire for marriage or partner-seeking actions. Nevertheless, being in workplaces where teamwork is prevalent, which could enhance singles' exposure to married and older coworkers, raises both women's intention to marry and their probability of using a formal method, such as employing a marriage agency, to find a partner. CONCLUSIONS For Japanese men, our results offer support for the argument that economic stagnation and deterioration of job quality are conducive to later and fewer marriages. The findings for women, however, are more consistent with the narrative focusing on values and social influences. CONTRIBUTIONS This study enriches our understanding of singles' considerations of marriage and partner search and provides highly rigorous evidence on the roles of job conditions.

中文翻译：

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工作特征、婚姻意图和寻找伴侣的行为：来自日本的纵向证据。

背景 大多数将工作与婚姻形成联系起来的研究都集中在工作环境和前景如何影响单身人士进入婚姻的步伐上。关于工作特征是否影响单身人士的婚姻愿望和组建工会的行动的直接证据仍然很少。目标 我们研究了一系列工作特征的变化如何对应于未婚者结婚意愿的变化以及日本为满足浪漫伴侣而采取的行动，日本是一个工作质量不平等加剧和结婚率下降的国家。方法 我们使用来自日本生命历程小组调查的纵向数据来拟合固定效应模型，该模型考虑了不同工作人员之间未观察到的异质性。结果我们发现工作不安全感和工作场所人员短缺的增加减弱，虽然收入增加和工作自主性增强，但男性的结婚意愿增强。此外，低婚姻欲望的男性在从事低收入工作或面临巨大的工作期限压力时，尤其可能会退出寻找伴侣的活动。工作前景和质量对于女性的婚姻愿望或寻求伴侣的行为通常不太重要。然而，在团队合作盛行的工作场所，这可能会增加单身人士与已婚和年长同事的接触，提高女性结婚的意愿和她们使用正式方法（例如聘请婚姻介绍所）寻找伴侣的可能性。结论 对于日本男性，我们的结果支持经济停滞和工作质量恶化有利于晚婚和少婚的论点。然而，女性的调查结果与关注价值观和社会影响的叙述更一致。贡献 本研究丰富了我们对单身人士对婚姻和寻找伴侣的考虑的理解，并为工作条件的作用提供了高度严谨的证据。