Biden opens doors to government jobs for military spouses

Congress has managed to kick the threat of a government shutdown down the road with a new short-term spending package. That’s good news for people who work for the nation’s largest employer: the federal government.​

While Congress was working on that deal this week, the Joe Biden administration released new guidelines on hiring federal workers, with the goal of improving prospects for one chronically unemployed and underemployed group: military spouses.

It’s no secret that military families move around a lot, like the family of Rosella Cappella Zielinski, who teaches political science at Boston University.

“As a military spouse married 10 years, we moved six,” she said.

All that relocating makes it hard for military spouses to hold down jobs, said Besa Pinchotti, CEO of the National Military Family Association.

“Military spouses have had an unemployment rate of over 20% — for decades,” she said.

And the effects of that add up over time, said Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, who directs Purdue University’s Military Family Research Institute.

“The earnings of military spouses are as much as 20% below those of their civilian counterparts, and that, of course, is a challenge for families,” she said.

So the administration is telling federal agencies to focus more on giving military spouses federal jobs, especially those that offer telework or other flexible arrangements.

Including, said the Rand Corp.’s Thomas Trail, on military bases where their partners are serving.

“They’re trying to make sure that military spouses are able to get employment at the installation they’re at or another government job so that they can maintain employment,” he said.

The new guidelines also mandate training for government hiring managers, so they better understand the unique needs of military spouses.

BU’s Rosella Cappella Zielinski, who has written widely on the economics of the military, said reforms like this may help prevent what happened to her family.

“My husband eventually retired to help me support my career and my son’s needs,” she said. “And so he is lost talent.”

And with almost every branch of the armed forces regularly missing recruitment goals, retention is a high priority for the Pentagon.