Why we may be looking at military spouse unemployment all wrong
A high percentage of military spouses live in labor markets that have fewer available jobs than job seekers, a new report shows. (Wallpaper Flare)
San Antonio. It’s is home to Joint Base San Antonio, more than three military installations and a large number of troops and veterans.
About one in eight residents of the surrounding county has some connection to the military.
Yet even there — in a city that has been called “Military City USA” since World War II and officially trademarked the nickname in2017 — Liz Larsen will sometimes hear people ask questions like, "Military spouses want to work?” or “Do they need to work?” perhaps not realizing that things have changed since their grandparents’ generation served.
Larsen, who was a military spouse for 20 years and works for Hiring Our Heroes as the senior manager for military spouse employment from San Antonio, was a recent guest on The Spouse Angle podcast. Episode 42 focused on the high rate of military spouse unemployment — a top concern for military families — and new research that points to the benefits of reframing military spouse unemployment as a local issue, rather than a national one, in order to make real change.
San Antonio trademarked the name Military City USA in 2017. (Kathy Salazar/Joint Base San Antonio)
“Location plays a major part,” said Rosemary Williams, the lead research on the from the consulting firm Deloitte and the spouse of a retired Marine. “We always looked at it as sort of a monolithic problem that needed to be handled by DoD and at the end of the day, military spouse have known a long time that it’s a very different situation trying to find a job when stationed, let’s say, at the Pentagon compared to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.”
The report, released in July, found that among military spouses who live on or near the largest bases, 44 percent are facing job markets with “negative availability of jobs,” or fewer jobs available than there are job seekers, Williams said.
This means “seeking employment is not one problem, but many different problems depending on where you live,” she said.
Through her work with Hiring Our Heroes, an initiative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Larsen helps to drive initiatives to get military spouses matched with jobs, including through a six-week fellowship program, where military spouses are placed in jobs with the city of San Antonio and other companies in the area. The program has a placement rate of more than 81 percent with an average starting salary offer of $50,000, she said.
“That’s what I think has been one of the biggest things, and so cities can do that, they can … put that money into spouse employment. The chambers, the local chambers, can help educate employers about the value of hiring a military spouse — for them, not it’s your patriotic [duty]. But the benefits that you get when you hire a military spouse — it’s proven.”
“100 percent,” Williams said. “100 percent.”