Survey: Many U.S. military families facing employment, food insecurity challenges

Even as Congress was scrambling to reopen the government on Tuesday, U.S. military personnel and their families were once again feeling the anxieties triggered by the specter of another extended government shutdown.

For those in uniform and their dependents, shutdowns can mean paycheck halts and several other gut-wrenching disruptions.

“We have a lot of evidence about how distressing (the threat of shutdowns) are for military families,” said Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families, the nation’s largest nonprofit serving and representing military and veteran families.

“We saw from the last shutdown that people’s anxiety levels went sky high — with approximately 70% of people having anxiety and starting to make financial plans around the threats of shutdown — and that number just increased the longer it went on.”

Roth-Douquet added Tuesday that the pain of a shutdown for military families stretches beyond possible missed paychecks. “It’s also medicines not being shipped to overseas hospitals. It’s child development centers being closed down.”

And the impacts of a shutdown for the troops can be felt even after the government is operating and meeting military payroll.

“It’s also people being sent home from training — training that only happens once a year and then prevents them from getting promoted or taking the next job. ... That can set someone’s career back for a year or more.”

Ultimately for military families, said Roth-Douquet, any government shutdown undermines the sense that civilian leaders are wisely stewarding the military.

“That’s a necessary part of overall morale for people who serve — and for their families.”

Analyzing the 2025 Military Family Lifestyle Survey

Besides offering government shutdown insight, Roth-Douquet and other Blue Star Families officers discussed with the media Tuesday their findings from their 2025 Military Family Lifestyle Survey.

“We ask military families to tell us their experiences,” Roth-Douquet said of the survey. “We listen. We share our findings with others. We partner. We take action — and we ask again. And we develop learnings from that that not only tell a story, but give us the insight for action.”

Utah is home to more than 5,500 active-duty military personnel — with approximately 2,300 active-duty spouses and 4,400 active-duty children living in the Beehive State, according to Military State Policy Source.

A key discovery of their survey: Many U.S. active-duty military families are dealing with money strain and even food insecurity.

“We see some trends continuing and getting worse in this survey,” said Roth-Douquet.

“But we see a lot of good news about some interventions that make a difference and point us to the way forward.”

The Blue Star Families survey included responses from approximately 6,000 military-connected people — including a cross-section of active-duty service members and active-duty family members.

Tackling underemployment, child care and food insecurity

Military spouse employment figures were a significant element of the survey, according to Lindsay Knight, Blue Star Families’ chief impact officer.

The nation’s current unemployment rate was about 4.4% at the end of 2025. But among surveyed military spouses, the unemployment rate was 23% — and 70% were classified as “underemployed.”

The “unemployed” figures receive much of the attention, “but underemployment is sneaking below the radar,” said Knight.

Many military families are also managing child care challenges.

“Thirty-three percent of our respondents,” said Knight, “cited (child care) as one of their top challenges — both in terms of financial security and in terms of seeking employment and maintaining employment.”

Specifically, respondents cited high child care costs, long waitlists and quality of care.

Meanwhile, about 28% of survey respondents were categorized as having “low or very low” food security, with 22% responding that they ate less than they felt they should because there wasn’t enough food.

And 30% of active-duty respondents said that they “often or sometimes” could not afford to eat balanced meals.

“That should be a call to action for the government, for the services and, frankly, for the private- and public-sector support to get after this challenge,” said Knight.

“If our military families aren’t getting quality, healthy meals, that endangers the viability or the sustainability of the all-volunteer force in the future.”

Roth-Douquet noted that food insecurity and financial challenges for active-duty military personnel and their families are different from similar challenges across civilian communities.

Often, they are the unintended consequences of military service itself — including frequent relocations, out-of-pocket moving costs, and spouses having their education and careers disrupted.

Why it’s essential for military families to feel they ‘belong’

The study also revealed that recommending others to serve in the armed forces is often commensurate with respondents’ satisfaction with military quality of life.

In 2016, Blue Star Families research indicated 55% of active-duty family survey respondents would recommend military service to others. In 2025, that figure was 37%.

Knight said that a guiding factor in whether respondents would recommend military service to others was their sense of belonging within their communities.

“We discovered in this year’s survey that ‘belonging’ has a massive role in how our families feel about military family lifestyle — as well as their desire to stay in that lifestyle,” she said.

Active-duty family respondents who reported a sense of belonging in their local communities were much more likely to recommend military service to others.

Meanwhile, those same respondents who reported a sense of community belonging were significantly more likely to be satisfied with the “military way of life.”

And perhaps most significant: Active-duty family respondents who reported a sense of belonging to their local community were far more likely to agree that neighbors in that local community would be prepared to support military families if the U.S. engaged in a major conflict.

“Feeling connected to your neighbors and feeling seen in the communities you call home have a huge, huge impact on morale,” said Knight.

One of Blue Star Families’ defining efforts is closing gaps between military families and everyday Americans.

“Fifty-three percent of our respondents who said they felt a sense of connection to their local community thought that their neighbors were there to support them,” said Knight.

“Of those who did not feel a sense of belonging, 16% felt the same way.”

The Blue Star Families military lifestyle survey also revealed lifestyle differences between officers and enlisted personnel, and their respective families.

Enlisted personnel and their families were far more likely to deal with financial and food security challenges than their officer counterparts.

Civilians: A call to action

So what can be done to best support America’s military families? The survey provides some valuable insight.

Many support resources already exist, said Knight. But they are not always utilized.

“We discovered in our survey this year that the awareness of those resources and the connection with actually using them is one of the biggest gaps that we can help to close.”

For example, less than a quarter of survey participants were aware of pet transportation and reimbursement resources available to military families relocating to new duty stations.

“This is an awareness problem — not necessarily a resourcing problem,” Knight noted. “We just need to let more families know that these resources exist to support them.”

Roth-Douquet added that military-connected people can be found in almost every ZIP code — including many reservists and National Guard personnel.

She suggests that anyone who’s eager to support military families should visit Blue Star Families’ “Do Your Part” website for suggestions.

“We do encourage people to take this mantle on,” she said, “because it not only makes a difference, but it’s super gratifying as well.”

The military life for American families is honorable, essential — and, yes, challenging, acknowledged Roth-Douquet.

“We have to uncover these challenges because they are a challenge to national security, unless we fix them,” she said. “The good news is that there are concrete steps that we can take that can make a difference.”