On May 16, 2025, the Defense Department released to Congress the results of the 2024 Active-Duty Spouse Survey, a look at the opinions and attitudes of active-duty military spouses conducted roughly every two years.
Survey participants are drawn from a representative sample and results are weighted for the entire active-duty spouse population, so findings are generalizable.
The survey covers a range of topics including the availability of child care, spouse employment, family finances, availability of services, challenges posed by permanent change of station moves and overall satisfaction with the military lifestyle.
This year's survey showed PCS moves are a challenge for military spouses. The biggest factor related to unhappiness with a PCS is the problem military spouses face in finding employment after the move. About 49% of military spouses who experienced a PCS move said finding employment proved to be a "large" or "very large" problem. Loss of income and nonreimbursable moving costs also topped the list.
Tim Dill, performing the duties of the deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the department recognizes the challenges faced by military families as they relate to PCS and the department is looking at ways to make things better.
"We pay a lot of attention to the spouses [who] share that they are dissatisfied with the military [and] would not support remaining," Dill said. "And one particular concern that I think highlights just [one of the] many of the challenges that military families face is the PCS move."
Included in that, he said, is how it affects spouse employment and underemployment — when spouses work in a job that doesn't make use of their qualifications. PCS moves also affect the availability of child care upon arriving at a new installation and present challenges in finding schools as well.
"And then finally, something that's just been in the news recently, the out-of-pocket costs associated with the move," Dill said. "That has come to our attention on the policy level, and it is certainly not [Defense] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth's intent that any military family should be coming out of pocket to pay for a move that is due to the needs of the military."
Dill said the department is looking at how it can, to the extent possible, prevent military families from having to pay those costs.
"We're taking a very careful look at when PCS moves are truly needed for the military; and where a PCS move is not critical for the military, we need to be looking at whether or not that's a move that even needs to happen because we understand geographic stability is a big factor for the household satisfaction," he said.
The survey results reveal that from 2021 to 2024, military spouse satisfaction remained steady with nearly half being satisfied with military life (49%).
However, the survey found declining support from spouses for their military spouse to continue in service. Factors influencing that shift may include quality of life issues stemming from the mobility of military life, the impact on family stability, continuity of health care, job and child care loss with PCS moves, a lack of long-term career opportunities, and other financial costs associated with military life.