The number of airport security screeners failing to show up for work around the country is soaring as the partial government shutdown goes into its fourth week.
No-shows among screeners jumped Sunday and again Monday, when the Transportation Security Administration reported a national absence rate of 7.6 per cent compared with 3.2 per cent on a comparable day a year ago. Monday marked the first business day after screeners did not receive a paycheck for the first time since the shutdown began.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest, some passengers waited more than an hour to get through checkpoints. The airport reported the long lines on its website Monday morning, showing the hour-plus waits at all three checkpoints in the domestic terminal.
"It's chaos out here," passenger Vincent Smith said as he stood in a line that snaked through the Atlanta airport's atrium and baggage claim areas.
"This line, I've been here about 15 minutes and it has moved 2 feet."
"If I was a government worker, yes, I would probably call in and try to do something else because creditors don't care if you're furloughed or not," Smith said. "They just want to get paid and with a family of six, you have to do what you have to."
A statement from TSA attributed the long waits in Atlanta to "anticipated high volume."
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