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Military Spouses Face Difficulties Finding Employment
Military Spouses Face Difficulties Finding Employment
WASHINGTON -- Among the 14.8 million Americans looking for work, the men and women married to military personnel face barriers others don't.
Military families move on average every 2.9 years, making it hard to pursue a single career or accumulate the experience employers want. Labor markets near sprawling bases like Fort Hood, Tex. or Fort Benning, Ga. are often saturated with overqualified military spouses eager for work. Many times, the certification or license required for skilled professions like nurses or teachers are state specific, adding another bureaucratic hurdle to overcome with every move.
Of course, many military spouses -- mostly women -- run their households singlehandedly while their partners are deployed or away on long training missions. And many wives are expected to volunteer long hours running the military's family readiness groups, which provide communications and support to families, while their husbands' unit are deployed.
Small wonder military spouses are having a difficult time finding work. The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from November 2009, shows 8.4 percent of military wives were seeking jobs and couldn't find one, compared to 5.3 percent of women in civilian families.
"It is difficult -- you are constantly moving so having a career is extremely hard,'' said Kristy Kaufmann, whose husband is an Army officer. "Sometimes you can get a job waitressing or at the post exchange, but for people who want more of a career, that can be challenging.''
For enlisted troops, the pressure on spouses to find work can be intense. "They don't get paid a lot of money, so you really have to have a dual income family,'' said Kaufmann, who consults with the Defense Department on spouse employment issues.
To make matters worse, when a military spouse loses her job because her partner is transferred, at least 14 states -- including states with military bases, such as Idaho, Missouri and Louisiana -- don't provide unemployment insurance because such transfers are seen as "voluntary.''
Military Spouses Face Difficulties Finding Employment