Over 1,000 military spouses and 100 employers packed the Convention Center in Washington, DC, today for a career forum and job fair put on by the Military Spouse Business Alliance. The alliance is part of the Chamber’s Hiring Our Heroes initiative, a program that placed more than 6,000 veterans and military spouses in jobs last year alone.

Today’s event was the largest hiring fair dedicated to military spouses ever. And just in the nick of time. Unemployment is a staggering 26% among military spouses, and there is a 42% wage gap across professions between military spouses and their civilian counterparts.

Pat Tracey came to the event to provide career mentoring to attendees. Today, she serves as a vice president of defense industry and development at Hewlett-Packard, but she was also able to draw on her experience as a Navy admiral with 34 years of service. “[Today’s] engagement with spouses on how to manage the careers parallel with their military spouse was important for me,” Tracey said. “I’m married, I’ve lived this life, and I know what it meant for my husband to pick up and leave and manage his career around mine.”

One of the biggest challenges for military families is that they average nine relocations over a service career. But many of the spouses and employers at today’s fair said there is a silver lining to that lifestyle.

Nick Relacion, a recruiter with Verizon Communications, said he knows exactly what military spouses have to offer because he witnessed it personally. His wife managed a budget, their two daughters, and a household while he was deployed for 30 months. “Everything we’re looking for in a corporate setting, [military spouses] have gained in a family setting.”

Event attendee Marva Williams said that her moves were stressful and difficult, but it’s that challenge that makes military spouses great employees: “It allows us to adjust and adapt to different situations and different people—really, I think it’s a benefit.”

With the turnout today of both attendees and employers, as well as the overwhelming support from partners, including the White House’s Joining Forces initiative and NBC4, it’s clear that benefit is being recognized in a meaningful way.