TSA struggles to reduce persistent turnover

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
Gil Harris sees a lot of new security screeners start jobs at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport — and he sees a lot of them quit.

Starting as part-time workers, the Transportation Security Administration screeners hope their jobs quickly become full-time. But in Buffalo, "it takes about a year to end up full-time," says Harris, a TSA instructor at the airport. "A lot of them end up leaving."

A similar scenario is unfolding in airports across the country, as the agency created after 9/11 to protect airplanes from terrorists struggles to keep screeners on the job.

Airport security screeners have some of the worst job turnover of federal workers despite a $100-million effort to improve salaries and work duties, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data shows.

One in five screeners left between Oct. 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2007, federal Office of Personnel Management figures show. The turnover rate was identical the year before. Attrition for the rest of the federal government was 8% in 2006-07.


Full story here.