Partnership links spouses, employers

Terri Moon Cronk/American Forces Press Service

The Defense Department launched a new partnership recently that’s intended to expand job opportunities for military spouses by connecting them with employers actively seeking to hire them.

Microsoft, Home Depot, Starbucks and the Navy Federal Credit Union are just a few of the nearly 60 corporations and companies that have signed on with the DOD partnership.

The design of this program is to bring together those spouses who want to work with a web portal where companies that would like to employ our military spouses can find them.

That web portal is Military OneSource — located at http://www.militaryonesource.com — which also offers job-seeking resources such as resume building. People can call OneSource consultants at 1-800-342-9647.

The partnership is based on memoranda of agreement to hire military spouses. Some 100 job fairs are scheduled, the first in Los Angeles two weeks ago, with 200 companies ready to offer jobs to spouses.

Military spouses bring a lot to the table. They’ve volunteered and lead different activities on and off our installations. They are skilled, diverse, and know how to operate in a team environment. Their sense of team focus and strong work ethic are some of the attributes and characteristics employers are looking for in a 21st Century work force.

Military spouses have been hit hard by the job market and face an unemployment rate of 28 percent. Of the military’s 1.2 million spouses, 80 percent want to work, but have been held back by multiple moves and deployments. A 25-percent wage gap divides military spouses and their civilian counterparts. Because of those factors, the partnership pinpointed organizations that could offer telework options and portable jobs.

In the course of setting up the program’s framework, officials asked spouses what they would like to see in such a partnership.

They were told not to “over-engineer things. “ Spouses wanted to look for jobs and be empowered.”

The program aims at bringing spouses together with employers looking for their skills, as a subset of strengthening military Families.

From an interview with Robert L. Gordon III, deputy assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy.