Airlines need workers but struggle to get them
Southwest Airlines has never had problems recruiting employees because good salaries, hefty bonuses, flight benefits and regular accolades as one of the nation’s best places to work were always enough.
But now Greg Muccio and the recruiting team at the Dallas-based airline are working harder to get good applicants and, when those resumes come in, make sure they keep them.
“After 24 hours of radio silence with a candidate, they are going to make the assumption that they aren’t a candidate any longer and move on,” said Muccio, Southwest’s director of talent acquisition. “Basically, every day by 3:30 you are going to hear from my team, even if it’s to tell you there is no news but you are still in the running.”
Airlines, once among the country’s most coveted companies to work for, are suddenly struggling to find workers at the same time they need thousands of new people to keep up with the new realities of travel. Despite ups and downs, the jobs are among the most stable and turnover is low thanks to largely union workforces that have regularly guaranteed pay raises and cost-ofliving adjustments.
In March 2020, Southwest employees took home an extra $11,190 on average in profit-sharing bonuses, although there were no bonuses the next year because of heavy losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. The median Southwest worker in 2019 had an average compensation of more than
$101,000, including pay and benefits.
But how things have changed in 18 months. Across the travel industry, airlines are competing hard for new talent after shedding workers for the first year of the pandemic.
Southwest is in the middle of a hiring push to get 5,200 new workers by November, hoping to provide relief to tired employees before the holiday season. Fort Worth-based American Airlines has openings for about 4,000 jobs across the company in addition to the long-term need to hire thousands of pilots in the coming years to keep up with retirements.
Delta is hiring 3,000 flight attendants, and JetBlue needs 2,500 flight attendants. Airlines have turned to recruitment bonuses of $300 to $500 in an industry where it was never hard to persuade friends to come work with you.
Airlines are among the largest employers in the North Texas region, with 30,000 workers at American and 10,800 at Southwest, along with thousands more who work at airports or for one of the dozens of other airlines here.
“I don’t think a year ago anyone could anticipate that we would be here looking for so many workers,” said Thomas Rajan, vice president of global talent and total rewards at American. “In some ways, it’s a good problem to have. But it is harder.”
It is a problem, particularly for airlines that ran into big problems this summer when the travel season got bumpy and there weren’t enough extra pilots, flight attendants and other workers to keep operations running smoothly.
American and Southwest went through long stretches with hundreds of cancellations because of pilots and flight attendants being out of position and out of hours after weather events.
After complaints from union leaders, American and Southwest said they would reduce flying schedules in the fall.
“These schedule changes are to provide you relief to the staffing challenges that we are currently facing and give our customers a more reliable travel experience,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in a message to employees at the end of August after reducing October and November flight schedules.
“So when it comes to staffing, we’re planning our staffing for the remainder of the year with less reliance on staffing models built on historical trends and continuing our hiring focus to support our future growth.”
Workers may be reluctant to apply for airline jobs for the same reason they aren’t flocking to retail and restaurants, said aviation consultant George Hamlin.
“Some people are legitimately worried about going out into the world and getting COVID,” Hamlin said. “If one of your perks is free travel, there just aren’t as many people that want that perk right now.”
But getting those new hires on board and into airports will be key for the holiday travel season, a busy time when nearly every airline employee is expected to work.
“Airlines essentially have two months, but who knows what will happen between now and then with the virus?” Hamlin said.
At Southwest, the biggest need for workers is on the front lines at airports and in call centers, Muccio said. Those are essentially the same workers who are tough to find for restaurants, retailers and other customer service jobs where shortages are rampant.
Southwest raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour this summer to attract front-line workers and even behind-thescenes employees, such as ramp agents who help load luggage onto planes.
“There’s a really large group, over 9 million people, that just flat-out have not come back into the workforce, and that’s really heavy on folks that work hourly jobs,” Muccio said. “But there are challenges on the professional side, too, and the challenge is that some companies are seeing a lot of internal turnover and people not staying for as long.”