Inspector General Report Calls on FAA to Improve Tracking of Vacancies and Skills Gaps in Safety-Critical Positions
Why It MattersGaps in FAA workforce tracking raise questions about staffing visibility for air traffic controllers and safety-critical roles across the national airspace system.
A federal inspector general report has called on the FAA to improve how it tracks vacancies and skills gaps in its workforce, with particular focus on safety-critical positions. The report found that two annual workforce plans required by law — one covering air traffic controllers and one addressing safety broadly — do not include information on gaps in senior workforce positions or how long senior and other safety-critical positions remain vacant, and that the plans omit information on workforce development or cooperative training programs, with the FAA's air traffic organization lacking its own such programs.
The report also found that the FAA does not maintain uniform agency-wide definitions for safety-critical and related positions, with definitions varying across FAA offices, and as a result nearly a quarter of employees categorized as mission-critical or public safety personnel are not included in the workforce plans. FAA management agreed with the report's recommendations to produce more complete information, while the report warned that until this information is fully available, the FAA will face challenges providing stakeholders with accurate and complete data on its safety-critical staffing needs.
