As a railfan, I had always wanted to work for Amtrak in some capacity since the 1970's--applied on occasion but never really followed it up. Now I am too old. Darn. C'est la vie.
Amtrak OBS shortage and salary
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Engineer
Interesting job postings. Aug 20th.
Job Matches:
Asst Superintendent Ops - 90237855 - Washington - Washington, District of Columbia, US, 20002
Asst Superintendent Ops - 90106388 - Chicago - Chicago, Illinois, US, 60661
Lead Service Attendants - Oakland, CA - Oakland, California
Lead Service Attendants - Washington, DC - Washington, District of Columbia
Train Attendants - Washington, DC - Washington, District of Columbia
Lead Service Attendants - 90342788 - Chicago, IL - Chicago, Illinois, US, 60607
Train Attendants - 90342823 - Ft Worth, TX - Ft Worth, Texas, US, 76102
Block Operator - 90341208 - New York, NY - New York, New York, US, 10001
Job Matches:
Asst Superintendent Ops - 90237855 - Washington - Washington, District of Columbia, US, 20002
Asst Superintendent Ops - 90106388 - Chicago - Chicago, Illinois, US, 60661
Lead Service Attendants - Oakland, CA - Oakland, California
Lead Service Attendants - Washington, DC - Washington, District of Columbia
Train Attendants - Washington, DC - Washington, District of Columbia
Lead Service Attendants - 90342788 - Chicago, IL - Chicago, Illinois, US, 60607
Train Attendants - 90342823 - Ft Worth, TX - Ft Worth, Texas, US, 76102
Block Operator - 90341208 - New York, NY - New York, New York, US, 10001
Why do you think they're interesting?
The Train Attendants Openings in Ft Worth is Interesting to me since the Eaglete and Heartland Flyer are serviced there.
They Service the Trains during the dwell for the T&E Crew Changes that occur here.
The platforms here are fairly Long and the Eaglete and the Flyer are usually parked @ the Far Southern End away from the Station due to the TRE and TEXRAIL Trains that also call @ the Station and stop Closer to the Station.
The Weather is HOT in the Summer and Cold in the Winter and the Work is all Outside so I'm not surprised these Positions are Open.
That about says it all!!
Do they hire people over 40, 50, 60...?
Legally they have to. In practice over 50 and your going to have a hard time starting/getting a new job. My few attempt are low effort, so my age is probably not the reason.
Acela150
Super Buff
The notice that was posted on the 16th was more of a reminder post. The posting for that job fair went up in June.
It's more like $22 and change an hour. HOWEVER.... Keep in mind that OBS works a wide variety of hours. My trips on the EB paid 70 hours R/T BEFORE extra time. It wasn't uncommon for me to rack up 80 hours in one R/T. Also factor in that OBS employees will routinely receive tips in the Diner and Sleepers. Trust me.... OBS employees are paid fairly, but their is always room for improvement.
Yes. Frequently.
Staff shortage problems stretch from Denver to Berlin...
Reported by DPA in Berliner Zeitung on August 22nd.
"Berlin - On more than 30 bus lines in Berlin, fewer vehicles have been on the road since this Monday due to staff shortages - passengers have to adjust to a longer frequency. ...
"How long the changes will last is still open. According to the BVG, a high level of sick leave due to the pandemic and generally too few staff make the measures necessary. ..."
Denver buses now carry interior posters offering job opportunities. Hiring bonuses of up to $4,000. Even though continuing to operate a reduced service level, there are daily notices of trains and buses canceled. As the Berlin story also infers, they are operating with a short-handed extra board.
Careers
Click on the Careers link and drive a train that gets you home every night. This is the job environment that Amtrak is hiring in.
Reported by DPA in Berliner Zeitung on August 22nd.
"Berlin - On more than 30 bus lines in Berlin, fewer vehicles have been on the road since this Monday due to staff shortages - passengers have to adjust to a longer frequency. ...
"How long the changes will last is still open. According to the BVG, a high level of sick leave due to the pandemic and generally too few staff make the measures necessary. ..."
Denver buses now carry interior posters offering job opportunities. Hiring bonuses of up to $4,000. Even though continuing to operate a reduced service level, there are daily notices of trains and buses canceled. As the Berlin story also infers, they are operating with a short-handed extra board.
Careers
Click on the Careers link and drive a train that gets you home every night. This is the job environment that Amtrak is hiring in.
Perhaps the solution for the LD trains in the west is to split the OBS crew shifts so that each crew only works one night on the route and gets to return to home base every second day, with the third day in the cycle off.
Unfortunately most current OBS employees would find that less appealing.
He's a Retired Amtrak LD OBS and most old timers like their Schedules, they bid them with Seniority, and enjoy working with the same people as part of a Team.
I applaud your creative thinking, however, realistically speaking it would be 3 (or 4) days on the road and probably 2 days off. Working this type of schedule, you spend the first day off recovering from your work thus you really only have one day off before you leave home again.
Working the longer trips, you put your time in while you are at work and then you have several days off, 3-4-5-6- to enjoy your life. It provides a much better quality of life. The Sunset Limited is the longest trip Amtrak has. It is also staffed by the highest seniority people from the LA crew base. Hope this helps.
The other negative factor is establishing more crew bases around the country increases Management costs.
Regarding the issue of Amtrak having trouble with applicants failing their drug tests. Amtrak might want to consider following the lead of the US Air Force and US. Space Force:
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/...-let-in-applicants-who-test-positive-for-thc/
Apparently, the other services have been giving waivers for some time to people who test positive for THC. Typically, the applicant has to wait 90 days and get retested.
A money quote from the article:
"Amid that debate, Rand Corp. has argued that Army recruits with histories of low-level marijuana use perform on par with other soldiers."
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/...-let-in-applicants-who-test-positive-for-thc/
Apparently, the other services have been giving waivers for some time to people who test positive for THC. Typically, the applicant has to wait 90 days and get retested.
A money quote from the article:
"Amid that debate, Rand Corp. has argued that Army recruits with histories of low-level marijuana use perform on par with other soldiers."
While I agree with you, Amtrak might not have that latitude, since they are governed by FRA regs. The armed forces may have more leeway in setting their recruiting standards.
I'm taking a trip to CHI to WAS and plan on tipping $20 each way no matter how the services is because that is a hard job. I don't know if i'm suppose to tip the people on the ACELA train going to New York City. I'm doing a trip to LAX next march and plan to do $20 each day.
I'd call you very generous.
On the Acela there is no one to tip other than the cafe attendant or first class attendant if doing first.
Saw this in my LinkedIn feed, which might explain why there's so much understaffing.
The pool of working aged people is shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. If companies expect to be able to hire people, they're going to have to treat them a lot better than they have in the past.
The pool of working aged people is shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. If companies expect to be able to hire people, they're going to have to treat them a lot better than they have in the past.
If I’m reading that graph correctly, the pool of working aged people isn’t really shrinking. It’s just stayed flat over the couple of years instead of a +0.25 to 0.5% growth over the previous decade.
Essentially, the labor pool today is the same size it was in early 2019 or so.
jis
Permanent Way Inspector
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Indeed! The pool was growing, growing, growing until 2020. It is only in the last year and a half that it appears to have shrunk very marginally. Note that the curve in the diagram is the first derivative of working age population size, not the working age population size.
So no. This does no explain why there is understaffing.
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Lots of things could boost the labor force even though (e.g.) higher birth rates wouldn't "pay off" for a generation. Demography isn't destiny. The U.S. is still a magnet for immigrants and intelligent policy would build on that. Better child care, both preschool and school-age, would sure help women in particular. COVID deaths (even though most have occurred among the elderly) have shrunk the labor force and so does "long COVID"...we need to come to grips with that. Even things like criminal-justice reform matter. Nice overview by economists at the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project at Can a hot but smaller labor market keep making gains in participation?.
jis
Permanent Way Inspector
Staff member
Administator
Moderator
AU Supporting Member
Gathering Team Member
There was also a significant drop in immigration during the pandemic period which would affect working age population adversely too. I am not sure where the year by year working age population estimates were obtained from. Which of the factors affect it in what way would depend on how the estimates were arrived at. They are not actual counted numbers since we do not do census that often.
The growth rate went negative in 2021. That could be why finding workers has become such a significant issue just in this past year. The fact that the growth rate went negative in 2021 might not be 100% due to the pandemic, but rather it's a culmination of demographic trends that have been going on for a long time -- specifically decreasing fertility among native-born Americans and decreasing immigration since 2000. Plus, (looking at the mirror), a lot of the Baby Boomers are starting to retire
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/populationhttps://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/net-migration
To really assess this, though, one would need to have a comparison of the labor pool to the available jobs over the years. Also,, even if the actual size of the labor force increases, a larger number of people leaving the labor force, such as through retirement, might cause a mismatch between the number of workers available and the number of jobs available.
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