Did you know that unemployment among military spouses is seven times the national rate? Neither do most Americans, according to Jill Biden.
The first lady has crisscrossed the country all year as part of her Joining Forces initiative and speaks often about issues facing military families. Over the past week, though, her tenor has changed, from supportive listening to active problem-solving.
On Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Biden gave one of her most emotional speeches yet about the experience of military families. She pleaded with business owners suffering through the nationwide staffing crisis to work together to hire and train spouses of active members of the military — just as businesses have been doing in successful efforts to hire veterans.
And she painted it as a matter of urgent national security.
The military is filled with husbands and wives who “question how long they can serve their country when their spouse is unhappy or feels unfulfilled,” Biden said. “Our military isn’t going to be able to keep our best and brightest if they have to choose between their love of family and their love of country.”
Biden was speaking to members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes advisory council, which works with thousands of businesses to obtain jobs for military spouses and veterans.
Jill Biden paid a surprise visit to the woman who helped her regain faith in God
But her remarks were directed not so much at the military advocates present as at the 90 representatives of businesses — including Google, Walmart and Starbucks — in the room, and at business owners nationwide.
All of this is personal, too. “The Bidens are a military family,” are among the first words she often utters during Joining Forces events. Her father was a Navy signalman in World War II and went to college on the G.I. Bill. Her stepson Beau served with the Delaware Army National Guard. He died at 46 of brain cancer that President Biden has said he suspects was related to his son’s exposure to burn pits during his year-long deployment to Iraq
Speaking to middle-schoolers on a U.S. Navy base in Naples, this month, Jill Biden talked about how tough Beau’s deployment had been on his daughter, Natalie, who “was old enough to miss him, every day.” Like every military family, she said, “we all did our best to make up for his absence ... video calls to her dad and extra-big birthday celebrations.” Natalie’s teacher put up a photograph of Beau’s unit in her classroom so she could see him while at school.
At the Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Biden asked the business owners to picture the life of a spouse living on a military base while her husband serves on a ship in the Pacific.
“She’s self-assured and accomplished — with not one, but two master’s degrees,” Biden said. The spouse, of course, is proud of her husband’s service and knows it is important. “But the more she talks, the more you can see cracks in her confidence,” Biden said. “She misses her work. After months of applying to jobs with no luck, she’s ready to take anything — after all, there are bills to pay — but it won’t be the career she’s worked so hard to build. She’s not complaining, but you can see the sadness and frustration that she doesn’t voice.”
Nearly every spouse she’s met traveling around the country since she started Joining Forces with Michelle Obama in 2011 has told the same story, Biden said. The initiative has made progress with teaching schools about the needs of military children and getting businesses to hire veterans — whose unemployment is now below the national rate — but over the past 10 years, Biden said, “when it comes to military spouse unemployment, the needle doesn’t move. Instead, it’s gotten worse.”
A 2020 report by Blue Star Families, a nonprofit organization that advocates for military families, showed that in February 2020, the pre-pandemic unemployment rate for military spouses was about 24 percent, compared with 3.5 percent for the civilian population. According to the report, almost half of working spouses lost their jobs or had to reduce their work hours because of increased child care needs in the pandemic.
Jill Biden returns to the classroom, live and in person
“We’re seeing military spouses leave the workforce at higher rates than other demographic groups,” Shelley Kimball, the senior director of research and program evaluation at the Military Family Advisory Network, told the Armed Forces newspaper Stars and Stripes.
On paper, Biden said, military spouses can appear to be risky hires for companies. They’re constantly moving and leaving jobs. The only way for them to stay in jobs for long periods is to get remote work — and, until recently, many companies adamantly opposed that work arrangement.
But, Biden said, it’s a new world. “If we’ve learned anything in the pandemic, it’s how to be creative,” she said.
She asked the business leaders to be as energetic about hiring unemployed military spouses as they have been in hiring veterans. And she urged them to creating opportunities for remote work. The benefit of remote work for the spouse is obvious: It means he or she won’t have to start over in the job market every time the service member is transferred to a new base. There’s something in it for the businesses, too, Biden said, because they get to keep loyal, experienced employees even when their spouses’ duties take them elsewhere.
The first lady’s speech was a companion to one she gave last week at a White House event celebrating six military children, whom she called “hidden helpers.” She talked about one child of a disabled veteran who keeps track of her father’s medications and doctor appointments, and another who learned how to help his father through severe seizures. Children in such circumstances have to grow up early, shoulder more chores and care for siblings, Biden said, and as a result can develop anxiety, depression and learning difficulties because of stress and burnout.
Since 2009, Biden said, she’d also seen the sacrifices made by spouses caring for wounded service members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — often young mothers who were feeding infants while making grave decisions about their husbands’ health care.
She sees them, too, she said. And is dedicated to at least helping them find fulfilling work.
The first lady wants businesses to join that effort, too. “We need your help,” said Biden. It wouldn’t be easy, but, she said, “neither is moving to a new base again and again. Neither is parenting while your partner is deployed. Neither is losing sleep, worrying that the person you love most in the world might not come home.”
The first lady has crisscrossed the country all year as part of her Joining Forces initiative and speaks often about issues facing military families. Over the past week, though, her tenor has changed, from supportive listening to active problem-solving.
On Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Biden gave one of her most emotional speeches yet about the experience of military families. She pleaded with business owners suffering through the nationwide staffing crisis to work together to hire and train spouses of active members of the military — just as businesses have been doing in successful efforts to hire veterans.
And she painted it as a matter of urgent national security.
The military is filled with husbands and wives who “question how long they can serve their country when their spouse is unhappy or feels unfulfilled,” Biden said. “Our military isn’t going to be able to keep our best and brightest if they have to choose between their love of family and their love of country.”
Biden was speaking to members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes advisory council, which works with thousands of businesses to obtain jobs for military spouses and veterans.
Jill Biden paid a surprise visit to the woman who helped her regain faith in God
But her remarks were directed not so much at the military advocates present as at the 90 representatives of businesses — including Google, Walmart and Starbucks — in the room, and at business owners nationwide.
All of this is personal, too. “The Bidens are a military family,” are among the first words she often utters during Joining Forces events. Her father was a Navy signalman in World War II and went to college on the G.I. Bill. Her stepson Beau served with the Delaware Army National Guard. He died at 46 of brain cancer that President Biden has said he suspects was related to his son’s exposure to burn pits during his year-long deployment to Iraq
Speaking to middle-schoolers on a U.S. Navy base in Naples, this month, Jill Biden talked about how tough Beau’s deployment had been on his daughter, Natalie, who “was old enough to miss him, every day.” Like every military family, she said, “we all did our best to make up for his absence ... video calls to her dad and extra-big birthday celebrations.” Natalie’s teacher put up a photograph of Beau’s unit in her classroom so she could see him while at school.
At the Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Biden asked the business owners to picture the life of a spouse living on a military base while her husband serves on a ship in the Pacific.
“She’s self-assured and accomplished — with not one, but two master’s degrees,” Biden said. The spouse, of course, is proud of her husband’s service and knows it is important. “But the more she talks, the more you can see cracks in her confidence,” Biden said. “She misses her work. After months of applying to jobs with no luck, she’s ready to take anything — after all, there are bills to pay — but it won’t be the career she’s worked so hard to build. She’s not complaining, but you can see the sadness and frustration that she doesn’t voice.”
Nearly every spouse she’s met traveling around the country since she started Joining Forces with Michelle Obama in 2011 has told the same story, Biden said. The initiative has made progress with teaching schools about the needs of military children and getting businesses to hire veterans — whose unemployment is now below the national rate — but over the past 10 years, Biden said, “when it comes to military spouse unemployment, the needle doesn’t move. Instead, it’s gotten worse.”
A 2020 report by Blue Star Families, a nonprofit organization that advocates for military families, showed that in February 2020, the pre-pandemic unemployment rate for military spouses was about 24 percent, compared with 3.5 percent for the civilian population. According to the report, almost half of working spouses lost their jobs or had to reduce their work hours because of increased child care needs in the pandemic.
Jill Biden returns to the classroom, live and in person
“We’re seeing military spouses leave the workforce at higher rates than other demographic groups,” Shelley Kimball, the senior director of research and program evaluation at the Military Family Advisory Network, told the Armed Forces newspaper Stars and Stripes.
On paper, Biden said, military spouses can appear to be risky hires for companies. They’re constantly moving and leaving jobs. The only way for them to stay in jobs for long periods is to get remote work — and, until recently, many companies adamantly opposed that work arrangement.
But, Biden said, it’s a new world. “If we’ve learned anything in the pandemic, it’s how to be creative,” she said.
She asked the business leaders to be as energetic about hiring unemployed military spouses as they have been in hiring veterans. And she urged them to creating opportunities for remote work. The benefit of remote work for the spouse is obvious: It means he or she won’t have to start over in the job market every time the service member is transferred to a new base. There’s something in it for the businesses, too, Biden said, because they get to keep loyal, experienced employees even when their spouses’ duties take them elsewhere.
The first lady’s speech was a companion to one she gave last week at a White House event celebrating six military children, whom she called “hidden helpers.” She talked about one child of a disabled veteran who keeps track of her father’s medications and doctor appointments, and another who learned how to help his father through severe seizures. Children in such circumstances have to grow up early, shoulder more chores and care for siblings, Biden said, and as a result can develop anxiety, depression and learning difficulties because of stress and burnout.
Since 2009, Biden said, she’d also seen the sacrifices made by spouses caring for wounded service members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — often young mothers who were feeding infants while making grave decisions about their husbands’ health care.
She sees them, too, she said. And is dedicated to at least helping them find fulfilling work.
The first lady wants businesses to join that effort, too. “We need your help,” said Biden. It wouldn’t be easy, but, she said, “neither is moving to a new base again and again. Neither is parenting while your partner is deployed. Neither is losing sleep, worrying that the person you love most in the world might not come home.”
