Trump officials want to recruit gamers without college degrees to be air traffic controllers

• The Trump Administration is calling on gamers to apply to be air traffic controllers.
• Officials think gamers have quick thinking skills and can stay focused under pressure.
• The FAA is accepting applications between April 17 and April 27, no college degree required.

The US government is targeting a group whose hyper-reactive skills align with one of its most demanding jobs: Gamers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration will accept applications for air traffic controller jobs from April 17 through April 27.

The role, which is about 3,000 controllers short and chronically understaffed, opens to the public only a few times a year.

This campaign specifically targets young people without college degrees whose "useful skills" include multitasking, spatial awareness, strategy, and problem-solving.

The FAA thinks that those "active in gaming" may fit the bill: "Feedback from controller exit interviews reinforces this, with several controllers pointing to gaming as an influence on their ability to think quickly, stay focused, and manage complexity," the agency said.

It added that roughly 200 million people — about 65% of Americans — regularly play video games.

A callout to gamers has been done before. Under former President Joe Biden, the Federal Aviation Administration launched a "Level Up" hiring campaign in 2021 that explicitly targeted gamers as potential candidates.

The FAA also hopes to attract talent with high paychecks: it said controllers can earn six figures annually within about three years on the job. Though securing higher paychecks often requires advancing quickly and getting based in high-cost-of-living cities.

New controllers, who must first graduate from the Oklahoma City training academy, earn about $55,000, according to pay scales previously reviewed by Business Insider. The highest-paid controllers, who have many years of experience at the US' busiest airports, earn more than $225,000 a year.

There are almost 11,000 active air traffic controllers, with another 4,000 in training. April's hiring window will close after 8,000 applicants. Eligible candidates must be under 31 when applying, be a US citizen, speak fluent English, and meet specific physical and mental fitness standards.

Current controllers come from a variety of backgrounds — many joined from the military or from specialized aviation schools. Others are picked off the street with no prior experience, but they still have to pass knowledge and aptitude tests.

The industry is desperate

The renewed focus on gamers reflects the government's urgent effort to broaden its hiring pool for a job that leaves little room for error, as a system that has been understaffed for years faces delays, overworked controllers, and mounting safety concerns.

Those pressures were underscored by the midair collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter over Washington, DC, in January 2025 that claimed 67 lives, which investigators have linked in part to staffing levels in the tower that night.

The 43-day government shutdown in late 2025 further underscored the system's fragility, when mass controller callouts triggered thousands of flight disruptions and forced regulators to cut 10% of flights to manage capacity.

The FAA said there has been improvement, thanks to Duffy's "supercharged" hiring plan, which has added bonuses for new hires, incentives for controllers to stay on in other roles after the mandatory retirement age of 56, and changes to speed up training by more than five months.

The agency said it met its hiring goal for the 2025 fiscal year, adding more than 2,000 new controllers, and that it's already almost halfway toward its 2026 goal, with nearly 1,200 new hires to date.