Chopping vegetables in an Otay Mesa business was not in Flossie Hall's original plan, but when you're a military spouse you learn to deal with changes.
"I was a student for almost ten years, four states, four colleges, four moves because of my husband," Hall told NBC 7." So everywhere I moved I got a job but then I would have to move somewhere else and then find another line of work."
Like many military spouses, Hall found it hard to find and keep a steady job, and a new study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Hiring Our Heroes, has found military spouses face unemployment rates at four times higher than the national average.
The unemployment rate among military spouses was 16 percent in 2017.
Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) hopes to attach a measure to the National Defense Authorization Act this year that would allow federal agencies to expedite the hiring process and allow the Department of Defense to provide more education, training and childcare.
Spouses have to deal with frequent moves, job certifications that don't transfer across states, bases far from cities and the difficulties of finding child care.
"[It’s] difficult, you have to change careers sometimes. You can't work because there's nothing flexible enough or affordable for the childcare so it is frustrating,” she said.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Hall now runs her own health food business called "Healthy Momma" where she helps other military spouses who were in her shoes.
