The pandemic has changed the employment landscape for military spouses

Did you know there are more than 1 million military spouses serving across the globe, filling important roles as they endure frequent moves, deployments, and the unique challenges of military life?  Nearly 85% of them want or need to work, but one in every four is unemployed.  The pandemic has changed the job landscape and with millions unemployed due to COVID-19, many military spouses are confronting significant economic consequences and face a staggering 38% unemployment rate.  Whether you’re juggling childcare due to the pandemic or gaps in your employment from relocating every few years, the struggles you face have only increased during the last year.  

However, even with a tough job market, there are over 14 million jobs and 3 people are hired every minute on LinkedIn.  So, to support military spouses actively looking for employment, we’ve put together some helpful tips as you think about your next step. 

Supporting your career search with LinkedIn Premium 

As a military spouse, you likely face frequent moves every 2-3 years, and this displacement often leads to increased unemployment and underemployment. To help make this a little easier, LinkedIn offers a free one-year Premium Career subscription to every eligible military spouse, in every branch of the armed forces. Having access to over 16,000+ LinkedIn Learning courses, InMails to reach out to hiring managers and recruiters, and exclusive insights on open roles where you might be a fit, makes it easier to navigate the job changes, job losses, or moves, that come along with military life, regardless of where you are in your professional transition. 

Check out opportunities in demand

The world of work is changing. Opportunities are becoming more accessible than ever due to skills-based hiring, and increased remote work options are making it easier to have flexibility when living outside a major city or being tied to a certain geographic area. In fact, remote work jobs have increased 4.5x in the U.S. since the beginning of the pandemic. 

In January, we published our Jobs on the Rise Report to spotlight some of these roles. Many of the jobs on the list don’t require a four-year degree and spanned the healthcare, technology, marketing and sales fields, just to name a few.  These roles, and the positive trends we’re seeing, mean that there are more opportunities available when you need access to flexible work options and the ability to relocate every few years.  

Explore jobs based on your current skills 

Building a career isn’t always clear or linear.  Sometimes it’s challenging to map your skills and experiences to a job that you’re actually a great fit for. With Career Explorer, you can look at where your skills transfer to help you find the right next job. For example, if you’re an administrative assistant and want to make a career transition, you may not be sure what other jobs you are right for, based on your experience. With Career Explorer, you can see what skills employers are looking for in administrative professionals, and then what other jobs are looking for those same skills. This helps you broaden your search, and helps you begin to identify potential gaps you may have in looking for your next opportunity.  We know that as a military spouse, you have a diverse set of skills, yet mapping them to jobs isn’t always easy; this can help.

Preparing for your virtual job interview 

In addition to seeing an increase in remote jobs, we’ve also seen a 60% increase in virtual job searches. So, to help you land opportunities in this new virtual world, we’ve launched several new features. To start, we’ve added a “remote jobs” filter to help support you in looking for remote work in perpetuity.  And, with more interviews taking place virtually, we also created an Interview Prep Assessment to help you practice your interview skills, get AI-powered feedback, or request feedback from your network. Finally, we’ve also added skills assessments to give you the ability to showcase skills proficiency on your LinkedIn profile and to help match you to relevant jobs.  

Leverage your network with #OpenToWork

Lastly, LinkedIn launched #OpenToWork as a way for you to add Open-To-Work onto your LinkedIn profile frame to signal you are open to new opportunities.  This feature allows you to connect to jobs or for members in your network to facilitate introductions.   Since launching the #OpenToWork photo frame last year, we have seen that members using it are, on average, 40% more likely to receive InMails from recruiters, and 20% more likely to receive messages from the LinkedIn community.

We recognize that as a military spouse, your experiences, resilience, and adaptability deserve celebrating as you pursue your professional aspirations and grow your skills.