Originally Posted by
FlyerJosh
Both good and bad.
FAA is going to experience a major shortage of controllers and hiring will be at all time record levels. However based on what I hear from controllers that are out there on the job now, there's a reason why the FAA is going to have a shortage.
People are quitting left and right and counting down days to early retirement since the work conditions and BS are getting really bad.
The shortage is due to a thing called the PATCO strike of 1981. The 13,000 member strong ATC union had a few demands for president Reagan, the major being better working conditions. Anyways they decided to strike, well about 11,000 of them did anyways. Reagan threatened to fire them, which he did, two day later. Long story short, the "replacements" are all up for retirement now and over the next few years. Therefore the FAA is going to have to replace a lot of jobs over the next 5 years or so.