Employment Placement Work for Military Dependents Continues to Improve in Quality and Effectiveness; A Series of Practical Measures Relieve Military Families' Concerns
"When dependents' jobs are secure, officers and soldiers' morale is high" — News Investigation No. 5 on Party Committees and Organs at All Levels Using the Correct View of Political Achievement to Help Grassroots Officers and Soldiers Overcome Difficulties
■ PLA Daily Reporters Chen Xiaojie, Bi Xiaotian, Zhang Nan
Military spouse Gu Lili teaches students an English class. Photo by Fang Zhikun
Early summer. Warm, humid air hangs over the island.
When reporters visited the headquarters of a certain Navy unit, Li Yongqiang, a staff officer in the unit's human resources section, was simultaneously fielding phone calls and flipping through a stack of documents on his desk, working to coordinate with local veterans affairs department personnel on employment placement matters for the unit's accompanying military dependents.
"Employment placement for military dependents is directly tied to the vital interests of servicemembers and their families. Military and civilian sides must work in concert and in the same direction — you cannot simply hand it off to the relevant local government departments and wash your hands of it." Putting down the phone, Staff Officer Li told reporters that in recent years, with an eye toward resolving the urgent and pressing concerns of officers and soldiers, they have proactively engaged with the local veterans affairs department, applied targeted efforts, and coordinated across multiple channels, successfully helping a number of military spouses secure matched employment placements.
The spouse of the unit's military physician Li Hao, Gu Lili, had previously been a high school English teacher, but last year the garrison location offered only a mathematics teacher position. Faced with this mismatch in specialization, Staff Officer Li communicated repeatedly with the veterans affairs department and coordinated with multiple local high schools, ultimately securing an English teacher position for Gu Lili and relieving the family's concerns.
Gu Lili's placement experience is not an isolated case within the unit. Zhao Chunmei, the spouse of Master Sergeant First Class (二级军士长) Xue Bo, had worked as an administrative clerk at a state-owned enterprise in Sichuan before accompanying her husband. With extensive work experience, she was successfully placed last year as an administrative clerk at a local state-owned enterprise in the garrison location, through the joint efforts of the unit's human resources department and relevant local departments.
"When dependents' jobs are secure, officers and soldiers' morale is high!" A responsible official from the local veterans affairs department told reporters: "Behind every military family member is a servicemember's family. As long as it serves the cause of national defense, no amount of hard work or running around is too much."
In 2021, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Status and Rights Protection of Military Personnel was promulgated and implemented, providing legal-level guarantees for the placement work of military spouses who accompany servicemembers. In 2022, the Central Organization Department, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission, and the Office of the National Leading Group for Supporting the Military and Giving Preferential Treatment to Military Families (全国双拥工作领导小组办公室) jointly issued the "Notice on Further Improving Employment Placement Work for Military Dependents," putting forward specific measures in the areas of strengthening organized placement efforts, expanding employment guarantee channels, improving employment and entrepreneurship support, and reinforcing accountability for implementation, with the aim of driving innovative implementation of military dependent employment placement work. In recent years, localities across the country have successively introduced specific measures to assist the armed forces in carrying out military dependent placement work, ensuring that officers and soldiers can serve with peace of mind and dedicate themselves to national defense.
"Properly resolving the difficulties of employment placement for military dependents is a practical measure for consolidating military morale and fighting spirit." In recent years, Party committees at all levels in both the military and civilian spheres have proactively assumed responsibility and taken positive action, treating the "three rear-area" problems (三后问题) that servicemembers and their families care about as priority projects and systemic projects to be grasped without letup, applying sustained effort over the long term, and achieving solid results.
"We insist on convening routine military-civilian joint meetings and officer-and-soldier forums, comprehensively surveying the basic circumstances and employment intentions of military dependents, and establishing information ledgers for dependents who accompany servicemembers on assignment or transfer, so as to achieve precise matching and targeted policy application." Leadership of the Hohhot Garrison told reporters that they have joined hands with relevant local government departments to jointly introduce a series of measures providing a policy basis for employment placement of dependents who accompany servicemembers on assignment or transfer, ensuring from the source that officers and soldiers have no rear-area worries.
Quality resources are being directed toward the armed forces, and practical measures are relieving military families' concerns. Jieyang City, Guangdong Province, has successively introduced multiple policies to advance the institutionalized and standardized conduct of military dependent placement work, specifying that beginning in 2023 and over the following five years, the city and county (district) levels will each year coordinate and allocate a certain number of public institution (事业编制) positions exclusively for military dependent placement, using rigid measures to break through the difficulties of military dependent placement.
Du Feng, an officer in a certain Rocket Force unit, has long been anchored to the unit due to heavy mission demands. His spouse, Liu Luyao, works in their hometown and is also very busy, unable to attend to the family. After unit leadership learned of Du Feng's family situation and his spouse's personal wishes, they encouraged Liu Luyao to participate in a targeted recruitment drive for military dependents. Through efforts on multiple fronts, Liu Luyao successfully passed the examination last year to join the veterans service center at the garrison location of her husband's unit, achieving a balance between career and family.
"I am grateful for the wholehearted help of the unit and the local authorities in giving me a satisfying job." Speaking of this experience, Liu Luyao's words were full of gratitude.
"Although differences in available positions exist across garrison locations, through the joint efforts of military and civilian sides, military dependent placement work has continued to improve in quality and effectiveness, injecting a steady and powerful source of motivation for officers and soldiers to focus wholeheartedly on their work and careers." Leadership of Du Feng's unit introduced that in recent years they have deeply implemented the "Military Dependent Employment Placement Project," abandoned the formalism of emphasizing data over actual results, consistently approached problems and resolved difficulties from the perspective of military family members, given military family members a genuine sense of belonging and fulfillment (归属感、获得感), and helped officers and soldiers shed their burdens and go into battle unburdened, devoting themselves fully to training for war and war preparedness.
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**Firsthand Account**
**The Unit Treats Military Family Members Like Family**
■ Military Spouse Gu Lili
I am an ordinary English teacher, and also a proud military spouse. With the help of the unit and relevant local departments, I have finally returned to the teaching position I love. Standing at the podium again, looking at the eager eyes of the students below, my heart holds not only the excitement of a dream come true, but also deep gratitude for the way the unit treats military family members like family.
Before my accompanying placement, I repeatedly agonized: if the placement position did not match my specialization, could I adapt to a new kind of work? Despite my inner anxiety, whenever I thought that accompanying placement would end our long period of living apart, I quietly persuaded myself to be prepared to adjust my career plans for the sake of the family. After all, having endured a long separation, both my husband and I longed for a stable, warm, and reunited home.
What surprised and moved me was that the unit headquarters proactively coordinated with relevant local departments and placed me as an English teacher at a high school in the unit's garrison location. When I heard the news, my eyes instantly welled up with tears. This was not merely a job arrangement — it was a vivid illustration of the unit's attentiveness to military family members' career development needs and its genuine care for servicemembers' families. This support gave servicemembers the confidence to focus wholeheartedly on their work and careers.
Since joining the school, the school leadership and colleagues have given me selfless help, allowing me to quickly integrate into the new work environment and realize my dream on the three-foot podium. I understand deeply that the reason I have the opportunity to continue teaching and nurturing students traces back to the shelter the unit has built for servicemembers' family members.
(Compiled by PLA Daily reporter Zhang Nan)
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**Pursuing Political Achievement with Warmth**
■ Li Yongqiang, Human Resources Section, a Certain Navy Unit
As a headquarters officer, I have long been responsible for military dependent placement work. Every time I see a military dependent smile upon finding a satisfying position, I understand more deeply the meaning and weight of this work: "rear-area" problems bear on military morale and fighting spirit, and on the armed forces' combat effectiveness building.
When I first took on military dependent placement work, I was accustomed to pursuing "placement completion rates" and rarely took the time to understand each military family member's professional strengths, work experience, and genuine wishes.
"Military family members accompany their spouses with great expectations. The more care we put in, the more practical problems we solve, the more military morale we can consolidate." During study and education on establishing and practicing the correct view of political achievement (正确政绩观), the headquarters organized all officers to engage in in-depth discussion in connection with their job responsibilities, and the remarks of one leader moved me deeply. Serving officers and soldiers is an important function of Party committees and headquarters organs; the satisfaction of officers and soldiers is a key indicator for measuring the quality and effectiveness of headquarters work; headquarters officers must think what officers and soldiers think, feel urgency about what officers and soldiers feel urgency about, and resolve what officers and soldiers worry about — doing good things in a substantive way and doing practical things well.
With emotion invested, drive rises. From that point on, I more proactively thought about problems from the perspective of military family members, and based on military spouses' employment needs and the actual circumstances of servicemembers' families, I proactively communicated and coordinated with relevant local departments to secure satisfying work for military family members. Because I know that every additional layer of consideration we give, every additional step forward we take, adds one more measure of happiness and fulfillment for servicemembers and their families.
As more and more military spouses are placed in satisfying positions, I feel ever more genuinely that only when officers and soldiers are at ease and military family members are content can we say our work has been done properly — and that is the kind of political achievement that has warmth.
(Compiled by PLA Daily reporter Bi Xiaotian)
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