A military career can be very demanding for both service members and their families. The U.S. Department of Defense has sought to monitor and improve the quality of life of military families, including the level of employment opportunity available to spouses of service members. Building on previous work, a RAND study examined the extent and causes of underemployment among military spouses (specifically, military wives). Comparisons of military wives with their "look-alikes"-a group of similar civilian wives-show that military wives have a much greater tendency to be underemployed. They are much more likely not to be in the labor force, more likely to involuntarily work part-time, and more likely to have relatively high levels of education for their jobs than their civilian counterparts. Finally, they are substantially less likely to be adequately full-time employed. Thus, there appears to be a significant level of underemployment among military wives, even after controlling for relevant labor market characteristics. However, there does not seem to be a strong link between military wives' labor force position and satisfaction with their life situation, so the effects of underemployment among military spouses may not be as serious as previously thought.

"Prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense"--T.p.

Introduction. Military wives' activity in the labor market -- Association between underemployment and well-being -- Military wives' employment and DoD -- RAND's analysis of military wives' underemployment -- Data used / Employment measures based on the labor utilization framework. BLS measures -- Adequacy of BLS standard employment measures for military wives -- LUF measures -- LUF measures of labor force behavior -- LUF measures of labor force position -- Constructing LUF labor force position measures -- Critiques of the LUF labor force position measures / The prevalence of underemployment among military wives. Underemployment among military wives -- Variation in underemployment -- Wives' labor market positions -- Usefulness of the LUF labor market categories / Identifying the determinants of LUF labor market position. Multinomial logistic regression -- Regression analysis results -- Difference between services -- Differences in LUF labor market position across pay grades -- Racial/ethnic differences in LUF labor market position -- Level of education -- Difficulties unique to the military -- Summary / Comparison of military and civilian wives' employment conditions. Likelihood of underemployment -- Propensity score weighting -- Estimated differences between military and civilian wives -- NILF status -- Unemployment -- Part-time work -- Underemployment by low income -- Underemployed by educational mismatch -- Adequate full-time employment -- Summary / Labor market conditions and the satisfaction of military wives. Ordered logistic regression -- Average marginal effects -- Summary / Conclusion and policy implications / Appendixes. A: profile of military wives and their civilian counterparts -- B: multinomial logistic regression results -- C: ordered logistic regression results -- D: doubly robust estimation.