Don't leave out that a high school diploma is NOT required so long as you have a GED or one year "relevant experience"....

HSToday.us (Homeland Security Insight & Analysis) reported the turnover at 17% 2 years ago. With the TSA resorting to employment ads on pizza boxes and gas pumps, I can't see any improvement in the numbers. The fallout from this is a serious issue:


Indications of screeners’ distraction, focus, and frustration have begun to be seen, and is in stark contrast to what HSToday.us and other federal investigators have found at the nearly dozen major metropolitan airports where screeners were observed three years ago. Then, screeners were courteous, polite, respectful, and appeared to be well trained. HSToday.us encountered few screeners taking shortcuts to speed up the processing of air travelers.

Since then, however, more and more screeners’ attitudes observed at airports across the country have shown marked chinks in their professionalism – from the way passengers are treated to screening mechanics. This isn’t to disparage the entirety of the TSA workforce, which by and large is comprised of patriotic, hard-working men and women, but rather to say that problems like those found by DHS’s IG do indeed appear to be causing enough stress that it is affecting conduct and focus on security.

Late last year, investigators for Congress’ investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), disclosed that they repeatedly were able to smuggle through dozens of airport screening checkpoints liquid bomb and other explosives components that, once on board a plane, could be assembled in as little as ten minutes. If successfully detonated, these explosives could potentially cause a “catastrophic” explosion.

I seem to recall following a link to a LEO forum where a discussion about background checks was going on. One person posted that the TSA was so backed up, that they had farmed out the checks to third parties. The backlog was up to a year, and the employee was presumably already working before the check was completed.

Could that relevant experience include something like, lets say flipping hamburgers at McDonalds.

Mr. Elliott

I have seen this myself, while I am not a true road warrior, I fly about 30,000 miles a year so I have been through enough TSA checkpoints over the past few years.

In general I have seen a decline in professionalism like as described. At some airports like in South Florida, except MIA, where there seems to be more of a mature mix of TSO’s, like some that retired early from their jobs and are working there to supplement their incomes they tend to be more courteous and care about the way they treat passengers, this flows down to the younger workers there, but at other airports, like ATL, where they are mostly young, they are the crudest, rudest bunch of power tripper a$$holes with attitude problems I have ever met, (I would like to really say what I think of them at ATL, but I would probably be kicked off of FT if I did).

Since the article states the average turnover is 17%, that means that at some airports they have a higher average and I would guess a place like ATL has over 25 percent or more turnover a year..

I wonder if the average turnover reflects that that have left on their own accord, or included those that have been fired for other than theft.

Mr. Elliott

Yes they do (I believe it's to Choicepoint). GSA was/may still be even farming out SSBI investigations to outside contractors.

Earlier this year, the TSA announced it would be sharing Secret intel with a portion of it's workforce. A TSA employee stated here that due to the more intense background checks finding skeletons in screener's closets, quite a few had to be fired. So in a bit of unintended circumstances, more Bad Apples™ have been shown the door.