Two organizations announced a new first-of-its-kind effort to tackle the double digit unemployment rate plaguing the military spouse community.
Blue Star Families and Hiring Our Heroes partnered, in collaboration with the Department of Defense Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP), to launch the 4+1 Commitment: The Formula for Military Spouse Success.
“I think it is important to understand that military spouse employment is not only vital for financial stability of our military families but is important for military readiness,” said Katherine McCarthy, a Navy spouse. “Financial instability is a huge concern among military families and not only distracts service members from the mission but leads to difficulties in recruiting and retention.”
The Austin native was present at the launch and introduced First Lady Dr. Jill Biden to introduce the new initiative. Despite an exceptional educational and professional background, everything changed when her husband moved from the private sector to the Navy.
“I was immediately handed the challenge of aligning my education and personal career goals with the geographic constraint of where the Navy planned on sending us,” she said.
McCarthy’s master’s in international human rights led to social work, being an English teacher and during their OCONUS tour, unemployed.
“Between all of these career shifts, we were also growing our family and I was facing difficulty finding work while pregnant in a new duty station. All of the challenges that come with being a female and being a mother have been amplified as a military spouse.” she added.
Now the national donor relations manager for the U.S. Navy Memorial, McCarthy said she wishes the initiative had come along sooner but is grateful for the collaborative effort to pursue the issue.
President of Hiring our Heroes, Eric Eversole, saw the writing on the wall.
“When I took over this organization in 2013 it was very clear to me that this was a crisis,” he said. “In addition to the other challenges our military spouses face, it was obvious to me that unemployment was going to impact the health of the force.”
He had his introduction to military culture long before leading HOH. Eversole enlisted in 1994 with the Air National Guard, commissioning into the Navy JAG Corps after completing law school and serving a combined 24 years of active and reserve time before retiring in 2019.
“This new initiative really sprang as a way to create a national call to action for companies to do something that quite honestly is so easy, especially post-COVID,” he explained. “It’s the same thing we asked back in 2011, 2012 and 2013 for veterans. We were able to create things like the Veterans Job Commission with JP Morgan and a slew of other organizations like the George W. Bush Institute. Now it’s time to do it again for our spouses.”
McCarthy is hopeful this initiative will make waves.
“The 4+1 Commitment provides a framework for employer flexibility in several different areas. Remote and transferable work allows us to take our jobs with us as we PCS, flexible work hours give us the opportunity to provide a stable environment for our families when service members are deployed or work non-traditional hours and PCS leave gives us grace as we transition from duty station to duty station,” she explained. “Supporting government spouse employment programs is hugely impactful, as these organizations provide connections and opportunities to employment when military spouses are new to an area and need extra support.”
The initiative is under Blue Star Families’ “Do Your Part” campaign, which is
made possible by craig newmark philanthropies. It asks companies to adopt voluntary commitments to hiring military spouses. Examples include things like facilitating ways for job transferability, offering remote work, flexible hours and providing paid PCS leave.
While the initiative has laid out its plan, HOH and BSF are also working towards increasing federal employment opportunities as well.
“We are seeing a groundswell of support for major companies across the country and think this is important. We’re seeing significant changes across the federal agencies too which is going to be huge,” Eversole said.
The +1 portion asks companies to join an existing government military spouse employment program, like the Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot or Military Spouse Employment Partnership. Starbucks was the first company to sign up and is a founding member of the “Do Your Part” campaign.
At its launch, Biden implored at least 1,000 companies to join in.
“We can do this. When I came on board HOH in 2013 the DOD was paying out nearly a billion dollars in unemployment compensation because that was the first stop after leaving service. In 2022 it was down to $115 million,” Eversole said. “If we work together, we’re going to be able to tackle some of these larger challenges and that’s what we’re already seeing with some of this.”
Visit Blue Star Families to learn more about the 4+1 Commitment
