Save Our Trains Michigan
Conductor
Off UTU web site
Retirements, demand spur railroads to hire CHICAGO -- While some sectors of the U.S. economy are in the midst of cutting jobs, railroad companies continue hiring people at a rapid clip thanks to retirements and healthy demand for transportation services, according to this MarketWatch report by Desiree J. Hanford.
The industry needs to add about 80,000 employees between 2005 and 2011, requiring the hiring of at least twice as many workers as usual, the Association of American Railroads says. The needs range from locomotive engineers to conductors to track workers.
That would represent about a 33% increase from current employment levels and stands in sharp contrast to the massive job cuts seen in the auto industry, for example. Railroads employed 240,000 workers in September, compared with 235,000 in September 2005, according to the Railroad Retirement Board.
"With the growth prospects of the industry and our own needs, we don't see an end to our hiring needs," CSX Corp. (CSX) spokesman Gary Sease said, adding that the railroad plans to continue hiring between 1,500 and 2,000 workers a year for the foreseeable future.
Union Pacific Corp. (UNP), the largest railroad by revenue, expects about 2,650 conductors and 1,060 engineers to complete training this year, spokesman Mark Davis said. Last year just over 2,000 conductors and about 1,700 engineers did so. Union Pacific is still assessing its plan for next year, but the healthy pace of hiring is expected to continue, Davis said.
The need for more railroad workers stems, in part, from a change in 2002 that gave workers with 30 years of service the option to retire with full benefits at age 60 instead of 62. In addition, the industry hadn't hired many people in the past decade or so because of consolidation and technological advancements that led to fewer workers being required on trains, said Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads.
An increase in demand has also spurred the need for more workers. The industry first noticed a worker shortage in late 2003 when business suddenly increased, a rise few, if any, had forecast and so no one had planned for, White added.
So far this year through Nov. 11, intermodal volume is up 5.6% and carload volume is up 1.3%, according to AAR. Intermodal is the movement of freight by two or more modes of transportation, such as rail and trucking.
Although the need for workers isn't expected to hamper the industry's growth, finding the employees "requires a real effort on our part," White said. The industry's wages and benefits are competitive, but some people don't like the hours, working outside and often being on call, he said. Also, the industry is competing with other sectors for workers, including the trucking industry, which continues battling a driver shortage.
Like many other industries, railroad companies are using newspapers, radio and the Internet to help them find workers. Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) ran advertisements on a sports radio station in Chicago recently, looking for potential employees to attend a recruiting session.
Norfolk Southern is in the process of filling 15 positions in Chicago, but the workers it hires now won't be ready for about five months because they'll have to complete training first, said Rick Davison, assistant vice president of human resources. The company expects to need about 1,500 additional conductors next year, a level Norfolk Southern anticipates for the next three to five years, he said.
In addition to issuing general press releases about employment availability, Union Pacific often targets applicants in regions where job cuts have been announced. The railroad issued a release on Nov. 8, for example, courting workers in Tyler, Texas, where Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) has said it plans to close its tire plant by next year, eliminating about 1,100 jobs.
Norfolk Southern has 40 openings in Elkhart, Ind., a location where mobile home manufacturers have experienced a slowdown following fewer orders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Davison said.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI), which ran advertisements in movie theaters a few years ago in an effort to find employees, will have hired more than 16,000 people between 2002 and 2006, spokesman Richard Russack said. The company hasn't disclosed its forecast for next year.
"Our requirements are getting tougher," he said. "We have various screens that make it more difficult for certain people to get hired, so we might have to interview a larger number of candidates to get one good candidate."
Burlington Northern Santa Fe and other railroads have reached out to military personnel to fill positions because they have many of the characteristics coveted by the companies, such as being team oriented, safety conscious and reliable, Russack said.
(The preceding MarketWatch report by Desiree J. Hanford was filed on Monday, Nov. 20, 2006.)
November 21, 2006