By MOAA Staff

A Pentagon memo orders top officials to “make maximum use of military spouse employment flexibilities,” a move which could open more opportunities to a chronically underemployed workforce and help strengthen the financial well-being of military families.

Citing a 20% unemployment rate for military spouses, the April 1 memo from Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony J. Tata outlined a plan to retain and boost military spouse employment in federal service through several existing department programs, the designated location of a “resume bank” to identify qualified spouses, and creation of a new pilot program designed to reduce friction in federal hiring when a military spouse has orders to move.

MOAA applauds the department’s efforts to strengthen its employment policies for military spouses and celebrates its commitment to being an employer of choice for those looking to keep a career on the move. While education and job-training programs remain critical to military spouse support, these actions show the department’s commitment in a more practical form – one that appreciates the skills of these spouses, and one that sends a strong message to the private sector about their value as employees.

[TAKE ACTION: Ask Your Lawmakers to Support Military Spouse Employment]

Retaining Military Spouse Talent

The department is being ordered to approve “alternative worksites” for spouses whose servicemember may be on assignment outside their commuting area.

Eryn Wagnon, former MOAA Director of Government Relations and current head of the Pentagon’s new Office of Spouse Employment, clarified that this provision mandates DoW agencies to consider “alternate agency worksites (including return to office exemptions) for DoW milspouse employees who are PCSing.”

This policy reenforces the department’s commitment to the retention of military spouses.  

Boosting Military Spouse Talent in the Department

The memo also demonstrates the Pentagon’s dedication to its goal of reducing the military spouse unemployment rate by 5% this year through its own employment practices by requiring hiring managers to consider qualified military spouses for vacancies in competitive and excepted service “before considering candidates who are not otherwise eligible for a hiring preference.”

Military spouses will be considered for open positions through two resume banks:

1. New evergreen federal job announcements designed to target military spouse applicants
2. The Pentagon’s own Military Spouse Education and Career Opportunities (MySECO) program.

Military spouses looking for work should establish a presence in both applicant pools. They can submit a résumé on the MySECO website, which maintains a résumé bank of military spouses looking for work and connects spouses with over 1,000 employers dedicated to hiring military spouses.

[FROM MYSECO: Getting Started]

Spouses should also be on the lookout for new evergreen job announcements on USAJOBS.gov, as applicants for these announcements are screened in advance and could be hired quickly when positions become available. Spouses can identify these job postings by looking at the open and closing dates of the job announcement: Those with more than a month between opening and closing dates are evergreen, meaning there is not a current opening, but résumés will be considered for future openings.

Reducing Friction in the Hiring Process

The Pentagon is also implementing a new pilot program to reduce friction for military spouses and federal employers when military spouses have orders to move. This program temporarily enables military spouses to use their military spouse preference (MSP) to accept a job prior to 30 days of arrival at the duty station.

“[U]p to this point, our [Department of War Education Activity] schools could not extend job offers to highly qualified spouses with teaching licenses until 30 days prior to their PCS move, creating economic insecurity for our military families and unnecessary vacancies in our schools,” Tata wrote in an April 8 social media post announcing the memo. “No more. Now, these talented men & women can apply and be hired upon receipt of official orders.”

Transparency

Component heads must file a monthly report on their number of open positions, how many identified a military spouse candidate, how many selected a military spouse, and why applying spouses were not selected, along with any feedback on improving the spouse hiring system, per the memo. The transparency provided with this reporting will help identify which areas of the department are successfully implementing this policy and what areas need improvement.

Find more spouse and family resources from MOAA, and keep up with the latest on all MOAA advocacy priorities by signing up at our Legislative Action Center.