On November 5, 2013, MSJDN was officially inducted as a Partner to the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (“MSEP”) in a ceremony at the Pentagon.  MSEP’s mission includes helping milspouses become competitive “job-ready” applicants and to connect them with employers looking for the skills and attributes they possess.

MSEP’s mission is vital because, according to Military One Source:  85% of milspouses want or need to work, the milspouse unemployment rate is a staggering 26%, and military wives earn about 25% less than their civilian counterparts.  While military leadership recognizes that spouse employment is crucial to morale, the military is limited in its ability to help solve this problem.

The MSEP signatories have stepped into the breach, committing to supporting milspouses’ careers in a variety of ways, from identifying portable career opportunities, to posting job opportunities on the MSEP website, to helping already-employed milspouses make their jobs portable when PCS orders inevitably come down the pipe.

MSJDN is part of MSEP’s “Spouse Ambassador Network,” whose mission is “to educate, empower, and mentor military spouses to encourage career fulfillment by promoting and sharing resources while facilitating effective relationships with local and national stakeholders.” As Director Reda Hicks explained in her “Everyone Serves” blog post this week, we are superstars at educating, sharing, mentoring, and relationship building!

Many of us probably thought we were unique among milspouses — who knew there are more than 900 milspouse attorneys?!  As part of the MSEP, we can now leverage our network, creating more, exciting opportunities for all milspouses to maintain fulfilling careers while serving beside their loved one in uniform.