The partial government shutdown that left the Department of Homeland Security unfunded for 75 days ended on Thursday, but the damage to airport security staffing was already done. A TSA spokesperson said more than 1,110 officers had quit since the shutdown began on Feb. 14.
The losses help explain why passengers saw lengthy delays at airports during the shutdown, when TSA agents were still required to work even without pay because they are considered essential workers. Many staffers called out to take other paying jobs, and security wait times appeared to ease at several airports only after officers began receiving paychecks in the days after President Donald Trump ordered DHS and the Office of Management and Budget to use existing funds to pay TSA staffers last month.
The numbers are stark enough to matter beyond the immediate shutdown fight. The TSA reported an officer attrition rate of about 8.6% in 2024, and Sheldon Jacobson said that works out to roughly 11 officers quitting each day. But the figure since Feb. 14 is worse. Jacobson said 1,110 officers leaving over that span averages out to about 15 people per day.
Jacobson, who is a professor in residence at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a commercial aviation historian and former airline pilot, said the pace of departures accelerated sharply after late April. On April 20, DHS reported that more than 830 TSA agents had left their jobs. Jacobson said 280 officers quit in the less than two weeks after that, adding: “When you go from 830 people [on] April 20 to now 1,110, that rate is now over 30 per day.”
DHS warned earlier this week that the losses had already significantly decreased TSA’s ability to meet passenger demand and left critical gaps in staffing ahead of the FIFA World Cup and summer travel. The agency said more than 1,000 TSA agents had left their jobs in a post on X, underscoring how quickly the shortfall was growing even before the shutdown formally ended.
The problem is not easily fixed. TSA said new hires need four to six months of training before they can perform regular airport duties, which means the people walking away now will not be replaced quickly. Jacobson said the trend points to deeper trouble for the agency than a temporary shutdown headache. “Now we’re getting into significant reductions in permanent staff. That’s a problem,” he said. “And that will have long-term implications for TSA—not just today, but in three months, four months.”
For travelers, that means the shutdown’s end does not erase its effects. The lines may already be easing, but the staffing gap is likely to linger into the busiest travel periods of the year, with the agency still short of the workers it needs to handle demand.
