Finding jobs for military spouses remains a challenge for Pentagon leaders
“With military spouses, the main issue is that licenses don’t transfer easily across state lines,” said Shoshana Weissmann, an analyst who works on occupational licensing reform for R Street, a public policy think tank in Washington.
“What you need is for licenses to transfer quickly, but there’s another problem: Not every state licenses everything,” she said.
Some spouses are in career fields with loose regulations in one state and more stringent licensing requirements after a transfer. Getting states to harmonize licensing standards or honor the vocational license of a military spouse after a move has proved difficult.
“This has to be up to the states now and getting them interested,” Ms. Weissmann said. “They just don’t understand how much this affects people. It’s a small amount of the population, but it matters.”
