Divorce great for economy

Hard economic times had kept Amy Derose and her husband Lawrence locked in an unhappy marriage for the sake of their engineering firm in Pompano Beach, Florida, in the US.

"The business was hanging on by a thread and we had to hang on," said Derose, 53, who had been married 35 years and worked as the business manager.

"We couldn't afford to split. He needed me in the business and I needed him."

With Florida's economy and housing market recovering, "we are definitely on the upswing" and revenue is rising at their 24-employee company. That is allowing the couple to move forward with their divorce this month, after years of showing up to work as if nothing were wrong personally. Now she is looking for a job and "couldn't be happier".

The number of Americans getting divorced rose for the third year in a row to about 2.4million in 2012.

Whatever the social and emotional impact, the broad economic effects of the increase are clear: It is contributing to the formation of new households, boosting demand for housing, appliances and furnishings and spurring the economy. Divorces are also prompting more women to enter the labour force.

The rise in divorces has coincided with an increase in household formation.

Almost 5.3 million households have been formed in the past four years after the figure slumped to fewer than 400000 in 2009, according to the Census Bureau.

That is bolstering the need for apartments, condos and furnishings.

"Separations and divorce often create additional housing demand by creating two households when there was one," said David Crowe, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders in Washington.