By Ramona Schindelheim for WorkingNation.
Broadcast version by Alex Gonzalez for Utah News Connection reporting for the Working Nation-Public News Service Collaboration

As employers struggle to find talent, it appears the stigma of resume gaps is fading.

"We're seeing significant progress in what we call the institutional shift toward normalizing career breaks - so normalizing the career break that is part of a career path and the concept of taking career breaks itself," says Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO and co-founder of iRelaunch, a career reentry company.

By Cohen's count, iRelaunch has worked with more than 250 companies since 2007 to create programs for professionals looking to relaunch their careers after being out of the workforce for at least one year to 20+ years.

Returnships as an On-ramp

A vast majority of the return-to-work programs are returnships, similar to paid internships. Unlike an internship, returnships are not entry-level roles and employers have the intent to hire and convert the returnship into a full-time job. Programs vary in length, depending on the employer.

iRelaunch provides transitional support to both employers and professionals reentering the workforce with manager training, coaching and mentoring, and creating cohorts for participants. Cohen says participants are mostly women but also include men.

Reasons for extended absences from the workforce range from raising families to medical conditions, elder care, being a military spouse, personal pursuits, or retirees deciding to come out of retirement.

"The common factor is that these reasons are for something external and have nothing to do with a person's work performance," notes Cohen.

She explains that while career breaks are becoming more common, it's not the only reason employers are looking past resume gaps.

"The biggest factor is a greater recognition by employers of the attributes of professionals who have taken career breaks," says Cohen. "This is a pool of people who are educated, have great work experience, and are in a relatively stable life stage."

Returnships Move to the Public Sector

Returnships began in financial firms more than a decade ago with Goldman Sachs credited with starting them.

They spread to the tech sector and in 2015, iRelaunch partnered with the Society of Women Engineers to create the STEM Reentry Task Force and now counts 40 company participants including Intel, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Ford, and General Motors. Almost 1,000 professionals have participated in the STEM Reentry programs, according to Cohen, with 85% hired into permanent roles.

Cohen says the latest wave of employers to embrace these return-to-work programs are in the public sector citing the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, and Utah -the first state to offer a career reentry program of this kind.

"We, on a state level, certainly are experiencing a labor shortage just like everyone else is, so we need access to quality candidates," says Shay Baker, program manager for Return Utah which specifically recruits individuals who have taken career breaks for mid-career-level roles at state agencies.

"Also, like everyone else, we had a lot of women in particular leave the workforce during the height of COVID so we are utilizing it to get more women in the workforce," notes Baker.

Scores of women were forced to leave the workforce when schools and daycare centers shut down during the pandemic, leaving working mothers juggling the management of full-time childcare and a full-time job.

Return Utah was launched in 2021 with the help of Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson who had taken a career break herself to raise her family.

The program runs 16 weeks and offers cohort participants training, coaching, and support.

To date, 42 people have completed the program with 60% hired in temporary roles and 92% converted to full-time jobs, according to Baker. She notes several other states and cities have reached out, expressing interest about starting returnships.

Baker speaks from personal experience. The former television journalist took an eight-year break to raise her children and applied to Return Utah when a communications role at a state agency opened up. "I felt intimidated about having workplace conversations. I really had fallen behind in regard to any technical aptitude and technology," says Baker.

Addressing Skills Gaps

Those who run returnship programs encourage professionals to network and research products, updates, and services in their fields. In certain technology fields, they advise upskilling through bootcamps, or online courses may be needed.

Concerns about technical skills alone, say some, should not deter people trying to return to the workplace.

"Returners by definition typically are people that have a certain amount of years of experience. They've managed people before. They've managed organizations before. They may not have the latest technology tools in their toolkit but that's something they can learn if they are someone who embraces learning," says Addie Swartz, CEO of ReacHIRE. The organization works with about 50 companies including Wayfair and Fidelity to develop 6-month returnships and training programs.

People looking to return to the workforce can sign up, receive instructional content, attend webinars, learn about job openings, and submit resumes to reacHIRE's recruiters. Swartz stresses the importance of being able to transfer skills into different industries like tech and biotech. She adds, "We've moved marketing people into finance roles. We've done all kinds of things because smart, capable people can move into different industries, different segments of industries."

ReacHIRE boasts a 92% success rate in converting returnships into permanent roles. Swartz says it is helping companies grow their diversity pipelines. "Not only do we get this amazing talent back into the workforce, but they are actually staying and growing in their organizations."

A Lesson in Persistence

One of ReacHIRE's success stories almost never materialized.

Sujatha Kumarappan almost gave up on her career as a software engineer when she hit roadblocks with employers. "As soon as they asked, 'Tell me about yourself' and I said that I had a break, sometimes I wouldn't get a call back. Sometimes, they'd say, 'No, we are looking for someone who is still actively working,'" says Kumarappan.

When her family moved from India to the U.S. eight years ago, she took a break to raise her children and rejections started eroding her confidence. "It was a bit disappointing for me which made me feel like this is not going to work out and it was reducing my confidence level more and more," says Kumarappan.

Through social media, she learned about ReacHIRE, applied and landed a 6-month returnship at a financial firm where she was hired with the title Software Engineer II. Four months in, Kumarappan learned she would be hired permanently.

Now she's spreading the word for people in the same situation, emphasizing the importance of being part of a cohort and "feeling and sharing with someone who was going through the same experience," says Kumarappan.

Personal Obstacles

That sense of community can be key for returners to overcome personal obstacles. "On a personal note, I would say confidence and imposter syndrome are the biggest things that they are grappling with and are holding them back," says Christine Winston, executive director at Path Forward, a nonprofit that assists people who take breaks for caregiving return to the paid workforce.

Winston stresses, "Try to get educated about what employers are looking for in your field today and figure out how your past experience fits in there."

Convincing Skeptics

Path Forward counts 100 companies it's worked with since starting in 2016 ranging from Walmart and Amazon to startups. While employers may like the idea, it can be a hard sell to put into motion.

"For recruiters, the question is, 'Are my hiring managers going to be receptive to this?' For a hiring manager, it's 'Am I going to get penalized for taking a chance on somebody who has a career break?'" says Winston.

"Those are the things that we work to help them get past so they can get these programs set up and start to hire this talent - at which point the talent speaks for itself," she explains. "I love the converts that we see, the skeptics who become complete converts once they have gone through this program once and see the kinds of talent that they hire."


Ramona Schindelheim wrote this article for Working Nation.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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State officials in Maine said they are working to expand the number of registered apprenticeship programs to help counter a persistent worker shortage.

The state hopes to add 75,000 workers to the economy over the next five years by growing career pathways in clean energy, health care, and construction.

Joan Dolan, director of apprenticeship and strategic partnerships for the Maine Department of Labor, said the number of available programs has doubled over the past few years and all are currently full.

"There is huge interest and huge need," Dolan observed. "We've been working hard for years to expand our programming and it's really started to take hold and take off."

Dolan said 90% of apprentices who complete their programs are still working for their employer a year after graduation. Studies show they'll earn at least $300,000 more over their lifetimes compared to their peers.

The majority of apprentices in Maine are in the construction industry as federal dollars continue to boost the clean energy sector. The state has worked to recruit more women into the trade along with a growing number of new Mainers. Dolan pointed out even high schoolers are taking advantage, including in the town of Skowhegan, where a group of students is earning income and skills through electrical apprenticeships after class.

"We also have developed bank teller apprenticeship programs," Dolan explained. "There's banks right in the school, so the kids are getting high school graduation credit as well as earning a paycheck and learning a job skill."

Dolan stressed apprenticeships offer lucrative career pathways for students not interested in attending college or for the many rural students who simply cannot afford it. She added anyone can become an apprentice as long as they're at least 16 years old and are committed to furthering their education both in the classroom and on the job.


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Ohio is among the many states where a majority of workers lack access to paid family leave. A new report by Groundwork Ohio finds three in four Ohioans are employed in jobs without the possibility of paid family leave. This means many parents of young children face difficult choices between work and family. Even other conservative states, like Florida and Texas, have developed voluntary systems allowing private market benefits.

Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of Groundwork Ohio, said the need for policies that support families and their workforce participation has never been clearer.

"There is currently a mismatch in policy, and the desires of both policymakers and the people of Ohio, when it comes to both the needs of their young children and families and the workforce," she explained.

The report was supported by grant funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. While some people may take advantage of accrued vacation or short-term disability benefits, access to these options remains uneven. Nationwide, only about half of full-time employees have short-term disability benefits, and only one in five part-time employees.

The report also highlights the economic and developmental stakes for young children in families without paid leave. Research shows that nearly 23% of new mothers in the U.S. return to work within 10 days of giving birth, driven by financial need and limited options that support newborn care. Gutierrez stresses the impact on childhood development when families lack adequate support.

"We know that one in four children under the age of five across the state of Ohio live in poverty; they're among our most vulnerable. And so, the more support we can get to children and families in that unique period of time really sets a foundation for their lifelong success," she continued.

Ohio is one of 29 states without a state-administered paid family leave law, but public support for a national policy is high. The report says 94% of Democrats, 83% of Independents, and 74% of Republicans favor a federal paid family leave policy.


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Researchers at Colorado State University have been able to link the economic stress experienced by 78% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, to behavior that is bad for workers and company bottom lines.

Keaton Fletcher, assistant professor of industrial organizational psychology at Colorado State University and the report's co-author, said people who supervise other workers, at all management levels, are unleashing their economic frustrations on their direct reports.

"When they feel financially stressed, they are more likely to be abusive, berating or belittling, demeaning, sometimes yelling or cursing at subordinates," Fletcher outlined.

The findings, published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, showed financial stress is experienced by bosses regardless of their salary levels, and men are more likely than women to be abusive toward subordinates. The research was done in collaboration with the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico.

When bosses cannot pay their bills, Fletcher explained they feel like they are not in control of their lives. Bullying a subordinate is one way to try and regain a sense of personal agency. Gender expectations may also play a role. Fletcher pointed out women are more likely to be punished socially for "aggressive" behavior than men.

"Both men and women feel this lack of control in response to financial stress," Fletcher observed. "The data show that men are more likely to engage in those abusive behaviors when they have this feeling of a lack of control."

Companies tolerating abusive bosses are vulnerable to costly lawsuits and Fletcher added even workers who do not report abuse or sue can hurt a company's bottom line. They are more likely to show up late for work, be less productive, steal or talk badly about the company to other people.

"They are also more likely to quit," Fletcher stressed. "It is so expensive to replace employees. Pretty much across the board, having abusive supervisors just is financially costly to organizations."