Managers voiced concerns that delays in hiring may be causing the company to lose candidates. Image: Wild As Light/Shutterstock.com
The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided funding for Amtrak that boosted its hiring but that same law also increased competition for people with the skills it needs and a slow process hampers hiring there as it does in many federal agencies, an inspector general report has said.
The report said that Amtrak met its hiring goals for 2023 and expects to meet its goals for 2024, but filling jobs “has been and continues to be challenging in a tight labor market in which multiple industries are vying for workers with the same skills and experience as the company—in many cases to support projects funded by IIJA in other transportation sectors.”
Managers “voiced concerns that delays in the hiring process may be causing the company to lose viable candidates for its agreement ranks and could prevent it from efficiently bringing in new talent.” About a third of candidates dropped out during the hiring process, auditors found, citing as main reasons a longer process and more rigorous clearance requirements compared with private sector employers.
The IG said that while Amtrak has made improvements in its hiring process in recent years, neither management nor the audit team “could easily determine how long its hiring process takes or whether it is improving because its data are too unreliable to assess progress.”
It called for improvements especially in tracking applicants through the hiring process and tracking whether candidates have passed background checks and other preemployment requirements.
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