Military Spouses Receive Career Assistance

Military spouses will get money to learn an occupation under a program aimed at cutting the high unemployment rate they suffer because they move so often. The program jointly sponsored by the Departments of Defense and Labor gives a spouse $3,000 each year for two years to pay for an education, books, licensing fees and other costs for what the departments have identified as "portable career fields" such as education, health care and financial services. Military spouses have an unemployment rate that is three times higher than counterparts in civilian families, according to the Pentagon. Though some 77 percent say they need or want to work, frequent moves required by the military often make it hard or too expensive to establish long-term careers or meet state credentialing requirements, the department says. The program is being offered at 18 sites in eight states with large military populations. Details are available online at http://www.milspouse.org/.