Despite their above-average education levels and range of marketable skills, military spouses experience some of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Now, members of the Fort Meade Community are redoubling efforts to ease the challenges around military spouse employment.
“Col. Yolanda Gore, the new Fort Meade Garrison Commander, has made military spouse employment a No.1 priority for the community and the garrison,” said Doreen Harwood, Chair of the FMA Education and Workforce Committee.
In addition to harming spouses’ careers and families’ finances, employment challenges can also impact the readiness of active-duty service members.
Both Gore and her active-duty husband, who is also stationed at Fort Meade, “have seen this affect both of their commands,” Harwood said. “Col. Gore specifically said that the fact that a spouse doesn’t have a job to go to at the next duty station causes some families to be split. The active-duty military member will go on to the next duty station but the spouse and children will remain behind to ensure that two incomes keep coming into the household.”
That split strains families.
“When there is stress on a family member, that can lead to stress for the service member and that makes it more difficult for them to perform their mission,” said Dana Burl, Deputy Secretary for Military Family Policy and Programs with the Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families.
Easing the challenges around military spouse employment, however, is a complex undertaking.
Burl, a military spouse for nearly a decade, has seen those challenges through her work and her own life. Although she never had to deal with relocating to a new location due to a Permanent Change of Station (PCS), extensive travel, out-of-state-training and multiple deployments for her active-duty spouse prompted Burl to suspend her career for several years to support her family.
“It was a struggle to redefine myself both when I became a stay-at-home mom and when I put myself back out into the professional world again,” she said.
In job competitions, military spouses can face added challenges due to interruptions in their work history, multiple past jobs that lasted only a few years or little recognition of skills they acquired through unpaid work, such as managing a military family’s finances, orchestrating frequent moves or mastering volunteer jobs within the military community.
“Some spouses got married right out of high school so they may not have ever had an opportunity to hold down a job for more than two years,” said Audrey Borba, FMA’s Resiliency Outreach Coordinator. “That kind of turnover is not attractive to some employers and it doesn’t give the spouse many opportunities to get promotions and advance their careers.”
Consequently, “our military spouse unemployment rate hovers consistently around 20 to 22 percent even though significantly more military spouses have advanced degrees,” Burl said.
Members of the Fort Meade Community hope an array of efforts will improve employment prospects for military spouses.
The FMA’s Career Transition Program (CTP), which debuted earlier this year, enables military spouses and service members who are leaving active duty, to land interviews with select employers.
Unlike traditional job fairs, “you don’t have to stand in line and put yourself out there in front of a bunch of people” at a CTP event, Borba said. “You have scheduled interviews and employers understand who this event is tailored to, so they are aware of your situation.”
The Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation (AAWDC) helps military spouses tailor their resumes to fully showcase their abilities, access training, transfer professional licenses and identify promising employers, said Kirkland Murray, President and CEO.
AAWDC and the county are also working to help military spouses access wraparound services, such as childcare.
“Finding affordable and reliable childcare is a big issue for many military families and military spouse employment,” Murray said.
Consequently, the county has established a task force to develop multiple initiatives to expand childcare offerings.
“One focus is having enough childcare workers available so AAWDC is trying to build a pipeline of skilled childcare workers,” he said. “Second, Anne Arundel Economic Development is looking at how they can support childcare businesses because childcare is a very low-margin business by the time you pay for rent, insurance and workers.”
Members of the Fort Meade Community are also encouraging employers to adopt practices that would make them a better fit for more military spouses. Those include offering remote work, flexible hours, mentorships and opportunities to transfer to a different location when the military family has a Permanent Change of Station.
Maryland employers can utilize the recently passed Families Serve Act to give military spouses extra points in job competitions, Burl said.
In addition, initiatives by Hiring Our Heroes, Blue Star Families and other organizations “can help private sector businesses better understand the military spouse experience and how to provide employment opportunities that enable spouses to excel in the work environment,” Burl added.
