Spouses looking for work...

[Mary, Proud Mom of Nick]

Assistance available for spouses seeking jobs
By Karen Jowers
[e-mail]
When Air Force wife Krissy Strat­ton arrived at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in January, the county around the base was laying off teachers and putting a freeze on hiring new ones. She couldn’t even get placed on the substitute-teaching list.
It took her six months to find a job at the child-development cen­ter at nearby Hurl­burt Field, making about half of what she made as a teacher in Wyoming.
She’s happy to have found the job — even though it’s not per­manent, she is not guaranteed that she will work in any given week, and she doesn’t have vaca­tion or sick time.
In this dismal job market, mili­tary spouses around the world are pounding the pavement. Like Stratton, it’s often because they had to relocate with their service member to a new duty station. But spouses also have been the victims of layoffs as employers are forced to cut costs.
With nationwide unemployment at more than 9 percent, military spouses often have to work harder, for longer, to find work. Stratton scoured the federal government’s USAJobs Web site and other job sites, hit every job fair in the area, asked her friends and neighbors to let her know about job openings, and visited the state unemploy­ment office, civilian personnel offices and the family employment program office at Eglin.
In the spring and summer of 2008, the most recent period for which data are available, the unemployment rate for active­duty spouses was 13 percent, based on a survey of more than 13,000 spouses. That was more than double the national rate for that period, which ranged between 5 percent and 6 percent.
Asked what would have helped them find employment after their most recent permanent change­of-station move, 71 percent of spouses said, “Information about job openings.” In addition, more than half said training opportunities would have helped.
Many spouses have chosen to get more training for portable careers. The Defense Department’s My Career Advancement Accounts program, which offers up to $6,000 for eligible spouses to take courses that will further portable careers ( https: // aiportal.acc.af.mil / mycaa ), has been so popular, there’s a back­log of about four weeks for process­ing requests. About 500 spouses a day are establishing accounts, and the program hasn’t even officially launched yet.
Some of the services also are help­ing spouses. The Army Community Service employment readiness pro­gram has seen more clients seeking jobs, said Mike Wood, chief of tran­sition support services for the Army’s Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command.
Program managers have been offering more employment-related classes, counseling sessions and referrals to other employment agencies, he said.
And this fall, another eight employers will join the Army Spouse Employment Partnership — a resource spouses of any ser­vice can use — bringing the total to 39 employers who pledge to hire qualified military spouses. In 2008, 8,200 Army spouses were hired by these companies.
Near Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., military spouses get priority at the Nebraska Department of Labor ’s Workforce Development office in Omaha, said George Will­brandt, supervisor of veterans ser­vices. “If they are looking for a particular job, I may have connec­tions with employers who have those kinds of jobs,” he said. “So we can go out and market them to companies that hire people with their skills.” Ë
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