ABSTRACT
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) faces a large-scale personnel selection and placement problem in the air traffic control specialist (“ATCS,” or more simply “controller”) occupation. The generation of controllers hired after the 1981 controller’s strike (McCartin, 2011) are reaching mandatory retirement age, and the FAA is hiring the next generation of controllers (FAA, 2015). The FAA projects hiring about 1,000 to 1,200 new controllers per year over the next few years. Tens of thousands of persons apply each year in response to vacancy announcements. With far more applicants than positions, FAA uses pre-employment aptitude testing to winnow the applicant pool down to those with higher potential for success in this demanding occupation.
