By: Libby Hewitt

 

There are many factors that go into unemployment. However, for one section of the population, unemployment essentially comes with the territory: the spouses of the nation’s military personnel.

The military spouse unemployment rate is a huge problem that is not being given the attention it deserves. Not only do military spouses feel the effects on their families personally when they are unable to find work or make an income, but there are societal impacts on the economy as a whole as well. Military spouses are a huge reason that many of our nation’s most respected individuals are able to fight for our country’s freedom. Without the support and help of their spouses, many of them would not be able to fulfill deployments and other responsibilities that come with being a service member.

A survey from Hiring Our Heroes, a US Chamber of Commerce foundation, found that of all military spouses, of which there are over 226,000, 92 percent are female. The unemployment rate for these people is 16 percent, which is four times the rate for all adult women in this country. Of the military spouses that are employed, 14 percent are working part-time jobs, and half of that group wishes to be working full-time. Even those military spouses with a bachelor’s degree who do find work often make 40 percent less than their civilian counterparts.

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Many factors that make it harder for military spouses to find steady work, the main one being the frequency of moving that takes place for a military family.

Nan McCarthy, the spouse of a former Marine Colonel, spoke about her experience with the job market when her husband’s job took them to Japan in 1983.

“I was extremely lucky to find a job in Okinawa at a magazine,” said McCarthy. “The job needed someone who could speak English, so I had an advantage there, even though I was competing with a lot of other military spouses for the job.”

While she enjoyed her time working and was able to put her college degree in advertising to some use, McCarthy said her salary was nothing to write home about.

“The magazine job in Okinawa was great experience, but I was severely underpaid,” she said. I earned 500 Yen per month (the equivalent of $6,000 per year at the time), which was still practically nothing, even back then.”

When the McCarthys made their next move to Quantico, Virginia, in 1986, Nan found part-time work as both a daycare center assistant during the day, and a clerk at a Hallmark store during the evenings. She faced similar difficulties in both workplaces.

“I remember specifically talking with the owner of a clothing store next to the Hallmark card store where I worked,” she said. “He expressed interest in hiring me, but once he found out I was a military spouse he said he wasn’t hiring. I could not find full time work.”

Even though the numbers and prejudice business owners have against this population is alarming, the huge economic impact these unemployment rates are making should be paving the way for change in the future. This problem needs more attention from policy makers, employers and other civilian workers in general in order to make any progress moving forward.

In 2011, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden started The Joining Forces and the Military Spouse Employment Partnership, organizations that helped push through legislation allowing military spouses in fields requiring licenses like teaching, nursing and law to transfer those licenses easily from state to state as they move. This effort has created about 15,000 jobs available near military bases. According to Government Executive, companies involved in this new program include Hilton Hotel call centers, customer service positions at places like Arise Virtual Solutions, and other marketing and communications companies like Agility Marketing that allow work-from-home employees. The Joining Forces initiative has made over 54,000 jobs available to military spouses to date.

Additionally, further pushes for a fair labor market have been set in motion with sites like usajobs.gov, which helps military spouses in applying for federal jobs. While these initiatives are helping move this issue in the right direction, it seems as though further programs could be put in place to help military spouses by utilizing technological advancements like the internet, apps, and more that offer work-from-home options.

Apart from just improving this group’s quality of life and ability to provide for their families, it seems obvious that the benefits would outweigh the costs of tackling this unemployment problem for the country as a whole.

The unemployment issue with military spouses is affecting not just those individuals and their families, but also the U.S. economy altogether. In fact, a study commissioned by the nonprofit Blue Star Families determined that the economy is losing between $710 million and $1 billion each year because of military spouse unemployment. This number is mainly made up of the loss of income tax that spouses would have paid, totaling between $578 and $763 million, but this is only part of the loss the economy would suffer. If all of the over 200,000 military spouses were being properly utilized in the labor market, the economic losses would be much less severe.

Many military spouses are on a constant hunt to find a remedy to their unemployment problem. Some have even found that the best solution is to start their own business, whether that be utilizing their personal talents like art, writing, etc. or starting an online store selling jewelry, clothes and more. Many military spouses are looking for ways to incorporate their personal knowledge from their degree into the work force wherever their spouse has been stationed.

“Tons of military spouses are taking matters into their own hands by starting their own companies and hiring other military spouses,” said McCarthy, referencing companies like R. Riveter, which was founded by two military spouses and remotely employs other military spouses across the country to create custom handbags – some of which are made from repurposed military uniforms.

It took years of frustration, lack of employment resources and low pay for McCarthy to discover that the best way for her to become most effective in the labor market was to be self-employed. McCarthy launched her own publishing company, Rainwater Press, in 1992 and has since written, edited and published several novels.

“Being self-employed is an excellent solution for military spouses,” she said. “As a self-employed writer/editor I could do my job from any location and moving around didn’t impact my ability to work, other than requiring me to take time off to manage the moving process each time we moved.”

However, as ideal as it would be for every military spouse to have a personal talent or hobby that could garner a full-time business and income, that notion is simply unrealistic for many military spouses. This is where a large part of the problem lies. The work-from-home jobs and increase in military spouse-friendly companies are helpful, but there are even more difficulties military families face when moving so frequently, like the loss of so much potentially billable time.

As McCarthy mentioned, managing the moving process of each new location took more time and is an additional hardship that civilian families do not have to face.

“Every time a military family moves, someone needs to spend at least two months on each end of the process preparing for the move and then settling into the new location,” she explained. “And that someone is almost always the military spouse because the service member is either deployed or otherwise unavailable to help due to his or her job.”

These transitions into and out of locations cost not just time, but money as well.

“I’ve calculated that each of our moves cost me about 4 months of income,” McCarthy said. “So out of the 7 times we’ve moved, that’s at least 28 months of not earning outside income.”

Obviously, this problem is far from solved. However, with more and more companies willing to hire military spouses, the introduction of policies that are helping this population find jobs and maintain their licensing, plus the overall awareness of the country about the issue, the military spouse unemployment problem will hopefully be lessened in the coming years.

As for suggestions moving forward in reference to military spouses, McCarthy says:

“People just need to continue raising awareness of military spouse underemployment and compensation inequalities. They need to be educated that the breadth and variety of experience of military spouses is a positive thing, rather than a negative. People need to understand that by supporting military spouses, they are supporting our military.”