Feds behind in hiring airport screeners By Gary Stoller, USA TODAY Less than four months before its deadline, the federal government is=20 struggling to find enough people qualified to screen passengers at=20 checkpoints at the USA's major airports. The Transportation Security=20 Administration says it has hired 7,700 screeners. It needs to hire and=20 train a total of about 33,000 employees by Nov. 19. An additional 21,600=20 screeners will be needed by Dec. 31 to screen passengers' checked=20 bags. Congress set the deadlines last year, when it mandated a federal=20 workforce of security screeners to replace private firms hired by airlines.= =20 It's considering extending the deadlines. TSA spokeswoman Heather Rosenker= =20 says that the agency had problems "getting the word out" about its=20 available jobs during the first few weeks, but is now "building momentum"=20 and will meet deadlines. The TSA took over the Federal Aviation=20 Administration's airport security responsibilities this year. Alexis Stefani, the Transportation Department's assistant inspector general= =20 for auditing, testified this week at a House aviation subcommittee hearing= =20 that the TSA's hiring delays are "largely due" to a high percentage of job= =20 candidates who don't show up for an initial meeting and to a high=20 percentage of applicants failing an aptitude test. The TSA has also had a= =20 difficult time hiring a sufficient number of women. The agency's original=20 target was a workforce that was 50% female, but now it hopes to reach a=20 minimum of 33%. Security consultant Doug Laird says he's surprised the TSA= =20 has had problems getting qualified applicants, because it increased=20 salaries for screener positions. Screeners hired so far are paid average=20 salaries of $37,273 a year, but that's expected to decline as more=20 positions are filled, Stefani testified. "I guess it shows how difficult it= =20 was for the private companies to fill screening positions prior to Sept.=20 11," Laird says. Former FAA security director Billie Vincent says there's no way the TSA=20 will meet its Nov. 19 hiring deadline. "What the TSA thought was an easy=20 problem to solve is not," Vincent says. "As the TSA continues to recruit=20 such a large labor pool, it will have considerable difficulty." Jolie=20 Wilson, a senior director at Management Recruiters International, questions= =20 whether the TSA is targeting the right people for the prospective jobs. If= =20 such a high percentage of candidates is failing the TSA's first tests,=20 "Something's wrong," she says. Wilson says it's possible that an employer=20 can hire 33,000 people within months, but wonders whether the right ones=20 will be hired in such a short time. "I'd want to hire the best 33,000=20 people for the job =97 not just any 33,000 people," she says. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (Queen's Hall) http://queenshall.org/ (Queen'sHall) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************