Southwest Airlines sets its sights on 8,000 hires in 2022

Southwest Airlines will hire another 8,000 workers in 2022 on top of the 5,000 it's hoping to hire before the holiday season this year as the carrier looks to rebuild its network after the coronavirus pandemic, incoming chief executive Robert Jordan said Thursday.

"We anticipate we are going to hire about 8,000 next year in all work groups and again primarily on the front lines," said Jordan, the company's executive vice president of corporate services said Thursday at the Skift Global Forum in New York. "We've never had any issue attracting applicants and even we are finding it hard."

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is facing a challenge not unique in the business world at the moment, trying to ramp up operations after the pandemic forced it to shed thousands of jobs. Southwest is 7,000 employees smaller than it was before the pandemic, 11% of its workforce, according to federal data.

"Job one this fall is we have to get staffed and get stable in our operation because stability in our operation depends on getting staffed right," said Jordan, a 33-year Southwest veteran who will take over for retiring CEO Gary Kelly in February.

The airline has raised its minimum wage, started offering employee referral bonuses and is holding hiring events across the country. Even with all those efforts and aggressive hiring targets, Southwest has decided to cut back its flying schedule this fall based on staffing challenges.

"We've de facto become a country with a $15 minimum wage it feels like," Jordan said.

Southwest raised it minimum wage to $15 an hour this summer.

Airlines along with thousands of other businesses are facing a shortage of workers. The U.S. labor force is about 3 million people smaller than it was before the pandemic and that doesn't account for the millions of new workers who should have been added to the labor force during that time.

Southwest has nearly 55,000 employees nationwide, including about 10,200 in the Dallas area.

Southwest has seen a drop-off in the number of applicants it gets for each open position. Before the pandemic, it would get about 42 applicants for each job, now it gets about 14, Jordan said.

And even by the time it gets applications, many of those candidates have already accepted positions at other companies, Southwest Airlines chief recruiter Greg Muccio said.

Jordan said he was recently in Denver for a hiring event for 250 ramp workers. Despite higher starting wages, a union pay scale that increases yearly and travel benefits, it's still tough to get people to drive to the airport when there are "30 places that have job openings posted in the window."

"I go through the Whataburger drive-thru and I pay and get my bag and stapled to the bag is a job application," Jordan said. "That's what it's come to."

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