Marriage markets among religious Jews

 Here's a 2024 report:

The Challenges of Singlehood among American Orthodox Jews Part II  by  Dr. Matt Williams, Dr. Michelle Shain, Dr. Guila Benchimol, Channah Cohen, and Elisha Penn, The Center for Communal Research of the Orthodox Union  ou.org/research

Note: a shadchan is a matchmaker, a shidduch is a match.

 

"Matchmakers believe single men and women need someone “in the middle” to coach or guide them through the dating process. Some matchmakers see it as their role to help single individuals understand what compatibility looks like in a partner and that some single individuals’ expectations are “very unrealistic.” They express “trying to change the mindset” of the people they try to set up. Because some matchmakers feel that single people are inflexible about their “list” and are “looking for people they cannot have,” they may offer “a little bit of tweaking” or “point certain things out” to single men and women about their dating choices. One matchmaker describes her work as “1% idea, 99% counseling, guiding, phone calls.”  

...

"In summary, the single men and women interviewed and surveyed rarely feel they can successfully find a spouse on their own. Based on the survey findings, they are correct—the more one diversifies the types of finders they use, the more likely they are to meet eligible dates.
"At the same time, single men and women express frustration at the difficulty of accessing relevant potential partners. Few women and less than half of men feel they are frequently exposed to quality potential matches.
"Within our sample, more than a third (male 35%, female, 36%) of respondents met someone they dated in  the last six months through friends and family, well over the 20% who met through a matchmaker. Friends  and family play a key role in helping single men and women find a suitable partner as they are the ones who know them best and can suggest compatible people to date. This finding is echoed in the forthcoming OU study on the shidduch system in the Yeshivish community. Perhaps because it is not formalized like matchmakers, the role friends and family play is often overlooked, but it is a very effective way to meet  potential dates"

 

HT: Daniel Lerer 

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Earlier, for  some secular comparisons: 

Friday, August 9, 2019

Coupling up with the help of the internet

 

and on the importance of matchmaking: 

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

What has G-d been doing since the Creation? (Matchmaking, of course...))