The Transportation Security Administration is offering $1,000 hiring bonuses as part of its push to add 6,000 screeners, among other workers, by the end of September as passengers face long lines following the lifting of pandemic travel restrictions. Airports serving Austin, Texas, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina, have told travelers to arrive as much as three hours early in recent weeks because of long security lines.
Some airlines, which received $54 billion in federal aid to keep them from laying off workers, are now racing to hire people to staff reservation phone lines and other parts of the business. Carriers urged employees to take temporary leaves or buyouts during the pandemic to cut costs. American recently trimmed its schedule by 1% for the first half of July, citing a staffing shortage.
U.S. leisure and hospitality jobs increased by 292,000 last month, accounting for more than half of May’s employment gains, according to the Labor Department’s monthly report. Almost two-thirds of the sectors’ employment gains came from food service and drinking establishments.
