RSSJanuary 24, 2005
By Karen Jowers
Times staff writer
There’s good news for military spouses looking for jobs this year because many areas of the country appear to be heading into a labor shortage, experts say.
“We’re anticipating a severe shortage of skilled workers and a high rate of employee turnover across the country and across industry lines,” said Roger Herman, chief executive officer of The Herman Group in Greensboro, N.C.. “There are plenty of jobs for people who are trained or willing to get training.”
“For spouses, this next year will be the best out of the last five for good and meaningful employment,” added Ted Daywalt, chief executive officer of Vetjobs.com, a large military-related job board that includes a gateway for military spouses and dependents.
Herman said being a military spouse is now a selling point for employment. ‘There’s a strong sense of patriotism in our country today and a lot of employers welcome the chance to show their support for the military. In some cases, they might give preference to military spouses.”
Spouses can help themselves by starting to think about job searches as soon as their service member knows a permanent change-of-station move is coming, he said. “Employers are looking ahead to what their needs are in the future,” so it’s good to let potential employers know that a job candidate will be arriving in a few months, he said.
And from an employer’s standpoint, with an increasingly mobile work force, “if they know they’ve got you for a certain amount of time, and that you’ll give them advance notice so they can find a replacement rather than be caught with someone leaving with short notice, that’s gold for an employer.”
Employers are increasingly recruiting electronically, so there’s a great advantage to using job boards to make connections well in advance, he said.
As of Jan. 12, Daywalt said about 300 spouses resumes were posted on the Vetjobs.com site, and more than 1,300 member companies such as Wal-Mart and The Home Depot have access to the resumes and post jobs they have available.
Daywalt said more than 17,000 jobs are available on the board, compared to just a few thousand on any given day a few years ago at the height of the recession.
Through a partnership with the worldwide staffing company Adecco, more than 5,900 military spouses have been placed in jobs in the past three years, said company spokeswoman Victoria Mitchell.
Adecco is one of 18 corporate and government partners working through a formal Army program to increase job opportunities for military spouses, and also works with the Air Force informally to help spouses find employment.
Spouses such as Air Force wife Wendy Molletti have benefited from a Defense Department pilot program at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., that provides placement services through a contract with the St. Louis-based IMPACT Group.
The pilot program is IMPACT JEMS (Jobs/Employment for Military Spouses), with links to 187 employers with a wide range of full- and part-time job opportunities. After Molletti submitted her information online in November, the program helped her find a job as a substitute teacher in a child development center.
More corporations are actively seeking military spouses. More than 10,000 spouses found jobs last year as the result of the Army’s Military Spouse Corporate Employment Opportunities, said Delores Johnson, director of family programs for the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center. The program has a Web site at www.goacs.org.
The year-old program has partnerships with 15 corporations and three government entities and continually looks for ways to expand.
The Pentagon and Labor Department are working together on a variety of projects to foster employment opportunities for military spouses. Information as well as links to resources for civilian, government and military jobs, can be found online at www.military spouse.org.