Looking for a job? The Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) website might be the best place to start your job search.
The MSEP is a Joining Forces initiative that aims to expand employment prospects for military spouses by connecting them with companies that have pledged to promote portable career opportunities for spouses.
The job program, which was unveiled this summer during a ceremony at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., launched with the support of 72 national companies. AT&T, Amazon, Bank of American, Home Depot, Hyatt, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Lowe’s, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Starbucks and Walmart are among the big names represented.
Another 24 national employer partners will be announced Oct. 10 during a signing ceremony at the Association of the U.S. Army convention in the nation’s capital, while an estimated 210 local or regional employers located throughout the United States will be added by the end of the year. Currently, there are 54,400 jobs posted on the site, with 29 percent of the jobs located overseas. More than 5,600 spouses have been hired since the program began in late June.
“For me, this program is really about establishing careers,” said Robert L. Gordon III, deputy assistant secretary of defense for military and family policy, during a recent roundtable with bloggers. “It’s not just about jobs and employment. It’s about establishing career opportunities and career choice for military spouses. We’ve got a good start, but we need to continue to sharpen and refine what we do.”
To become an employer partner in the program, companies must sign a statement of support pledging to:
- Increase career opportunities for military spouses and whenever possible enable them to maintain their jobs when relocating due to a military move.
- Ensure military spouses are paid at a rate commiserate with their training, education and work experience.
- Agree to post job openings for spouses and a link to their corporate employment website on the MSEP partnership web portal.
- Mentor new MSEP employer partners.
“This is a significant step toward in addressing Permanent Change of Station moves and the whole concept of portable employment,” said Aggie Byers, senior policy analyst for the Department of Defense’s Spouse Education and Careers Opportunity program.
While the jobs program builds upon the success of the eight-year-old Army Spouse Employment Partnership, it includes one significant change. MSEP employers are required to report the number of military spouses they hire, provide salary ranges, benefit packages, and detail virtual and telework opportunities offered to spouses. In addition, the DOD is requiring companies to report on the number of military spouses within a partner company who successfully transfer jobs to new geographic areas.
A 2010 National Defense Research Institute study showed military wives have a greater tendency than their civilian counterparts to be either unemployed, involuntarily employed part-time or underemployed. Other studies have shown the military spouse unemployment rate to be nearly three times the national average.
Byers hopes the MSEP “levels the playing field for military spouses” by uniting talented spouses with employers who are committed to hiring them.
The DOD, however, is not asking employers to offer an employment preference to military spouses.
“When you establish a category of people that makes them very special and gets them hiring preference over other people, that doesn’t always turn out to be a positive thing,” Byers said.
Instead, Byers believes employers will see “military spouses stand on their own in being excellent employees for corporations in America.”
“They are generally better educated than their civilian counterparts,” she said. “”They are skilled in a wide range of professions. They are adaptive and resilient. They are strong team members. They are very efficient, very effective under pressure.”
Air Force spouse Leah Dagher, whose resume includes time as deputy chief of staff to U.S. Congressman Gerry Studds and chief of staff within the Department of Education’s Office of Vocational & Adult Education, argues the Department of Defense needs to recognize that spouse employment will have an impact “on the future health of the force.”
Changes in the economy and society make it necessary for most married couples to have dual careers, she said.
“Women are getting married later in life, which means they typically have had careers,” Dagher said. “In addition, often times it is a second marriage, which means a military member of spouse may be supporting children in another home. You no longer can live on one income like you used to.”
Army spouse Karen Francis, who blogs about military life at MilspouseMutterings.com, is cautiously optimistic the MSEP program will lead to sustainable careers for spouses by connecting them with companies that understand a spouse’s resume.
“Here is a way to get your resume onto someone’s desk with a watermark saying it is coming from the military program,” Francis said. “That means the HR person knows just because your resume shows you went from one job to another job to another doesn’t mean you’re an airhead. It means – Fayetteville, Fort Hood, Fort Bliss, Fort Knox – this is a military spouse. She is not going from one job to another because she feels like it. She getting to a new post, finding a new job and going to work.”
Nonetheless, not all military spouses share Francis’ optimism.
Army spouse Angela Kang, who is attending pharmacy school in Baltimore after finding herself unemployed and underemployed during a half-dozen military moves, believes spouses will continue to pay a price because of where most military bases are located.
“Not every base is like Los Angeles Air Force Base,” Kang said. “A lot of bases are in out-of-the-way places like Fayetteville, near Fort Bragg. Try getting a job in Killeen (Texas) doing anything that’s not service job related. It is simply not available.”
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The Military Spouse Employment Website is at www. Msepjobs.com.